


New Traffic Pattern

by Stokley



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Drug Use, F/F, Friendship/Love, pricefield, some not so PG-13 times
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-09-19
Packaged: 2018-07-26 20:55:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 67,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7589983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stokley/pseuds/Stokley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Can Max find a way to get through to Chloe without everything they shared during that week and without her power? My take on the "hospital ending" Where Max saves Chloe and Arcadia Bay but Chloe isn't the same Chloe on the cliff. Max realizes that there are things she still needs to deal with and fix in this new timeline while finding some unexpected changes as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Of all the Bathrooms...

When I'm happy  
I stop the clock  
To be with you  
Just to be with you

* * *

 

The constant beep that wouldn’t stop was the first thing she heard.  She could see that behind her eyelids there was a bright light, as if someone had walked into her room and opened all the curtains in the middle of an afternoon nap. She tried to raise her arm, to block out the light but soon realized she couldn’t, her arm wouldn't move, the beeping got faster. She struggled to open her eyes, they felt heavy, like they were glued shut, the way they felt after you wake up after falling asleep crying, gummy and crusty all at once. Her mouth felt like she’d been sucking on cotton balls soaked in copper, the metallic taste inescapable. All these internal checks took less than five seconds but felt like hours as the panic slowly raised from low in her stomach and fought its way to the surface. Her mind was trying to remind her of something, something of the utmost importance but it was all so foggy, it was hard to think...  She was.. Somewhere… Not where she was suppose to be.. Was she suppose to be at school? The panic was quickly rising.. Where was she? Where was…

 “Chloe!” Max cried out in a hoarse, pained voice, finally fighting through the heaviness to open her eyes, squinting at the bright light that assaulted her. The beeping was almost non stop now. Why wouldn’t it stop, it was cutting through her already pounding head. Would someone please turn it off.

 “Max! Oh My God! you’re, you’re awake!” A broken but familiar voice replied, filled with so much relief it was palpable. “I’m right here, Max!”

 Max’s eyes started to come into focus as she saw the only face she wanted to see inches away from her’s. Chloe’s blue eyes were red and puffy but wide with wonder as she stared at Max, a huge smile on her face. Both of them sharing matching looks of relief at seeing the other. Max’s head was fuzzy, as if every thought had to go through a thick fog to get through. _Come on, Brain, work._

 “Chloe..” Max tried to raise her right hand up, needing to touch the blue haired girl in front of her, to make sure she was real and this wasn’t a dream or some hallucination. Max frowned as she couldn’t lift her arm, she didn’t want to take her eyes off the vision in front of her, sure Chloe would disappear if she did but what was going on, why couldn’t she raise her arm, or move it at all for that matter? She realized in some part of her mind that she should be a lot more concerned about that but the only thing that really matter at that moment was that Chloe was right there with her but where was here? “What…”

 Chloe didn’t have to be a mind reader to quickly see what was clouding Max’s face with confusion, she quickly took the girl’s other hand, careful of the IV. “Max, Max, relax, it’s ok, you’re fine, you’re in the hospital. That fucking scumbag, Nathan, shot you, the, um, “ Chloe’s voice cracked, almost breaking thinking back to that moment in the bathroom when Max seemed to appear out of nowhere, surprising the unhinged asshole enough to cause him to turn around, the gun going off, hitting Max who Chloe quickly recognized, as surreal as it all was, it was like time had slowed down.

 Taking a deep breath to calm her voice, she continued on, “The ah, bullet, oh God Max, it was so hella close, it went into your chest but the way you were turned… it went through your shoulder, doing a lot of damage. I, I don’t know all the specifics, just what I’ve overheard the doctors telling your parents…”

 Chloe wasn’t sure if she wanted to know more specifics seeing as it was her fault that Max was laying in that hospital bed right now. She already felt like shit over everything, she wasn’t sure she could handle it if there was permanent or lasting damage. _She was shot, you dumbass, that’s enough to give anyone lasting damage, even if it isn’t all physical._ Chloe tried to shake the thoughts that had been running nonstop in her head since Max had been shot.   

 “My parents are here? How long have I been here?” Max felt that panic rising again, did she do it? Did she stop the storm? Had she finally found a way to save Arcadia Bay and most importantly, Chloe? “What day is it, Chloe? What’s the weather like?”

 “The weather?” Chloe had heard the doctors mention Max could be disoriented and a bit out of it for a while when she woke up from the medically induced coma they had put her in after her surgery but she was caught off guard at the weather question. “Ah, it’s Saturday, you’ve been here since Monday and,“  Chloe quickly glanced out the window and using her best snarky weather announcer voice continued “it’s sunny, a bit unseasonably warm for October in the Bay, not a cloud in the sky so it’s looking to be a great weekend to take a walk, get in some tailgating or fly a fucking kite.”

 Chloe dropped the fake voice when she saw Max still had that panicked, scared look on her face. “Seriously, Max? You were shot, you took a bullet for me and the first thing you want to know about is the weather? Which, wow, hella way to make a reappearance after five years by the way.”

 Max seemed to visibly relax as her foggy mind caught up, it was Saturday, it was Saturday! Like a guitar string that was tuned to tightly finally being loosened, it was Saturday and Chloe was still here along with Arcadia Bay. She had done it, she wasn’t sure how, the details were a bit fuzzy. She remember the gut wrenching goodbye to Chloe on the cliff, the most intense kiss she had ever experienced, and focusing on the butterfly picture but all the times she had gone back had blended together. “It’s Saturday?”

 “All day” Chloe said without thinking, she was paying more attention to how Max looked a bit to... happy?  relieved? for someone who had woken up after losing a week in a hospital from being shot. Though given the alternative, Chloe was over the fucking moon, so she thought she could understand.

 “I’ve been out for 6 days? What happened, please, Chloe tell me everything.” Max either ignored the sarcastic reply or didn’t hear it. Max bit her bottom lip, afraid that she had somehow screwed things up even worse and it was now the Zombie Apocalypse outside or something. In the back of her mind, in the haze, she still thought she should be a lot more upset about not being able to feel her right arm but oddly enough, it wasn’t a pressing concern, she was more mildly curious than anything about it.

 Chloe looked down, not able to look Max in the eye as the events from the bathroom came rushing before her again, it was all she could see every time she closed her eyes. _Max getting shot, Max falling to the ground, a blue butterfly fluttering over Max as she hit the cold tiles, her blood_ … Chloe shook her head as if she could ever shake those memories and images from her mind, she would never be able to unsee that.

 “Maybe you should talk to your parents? They should be right back, they just went downstairs to grab some food. I’m not sure if now’s a good time to go into all that, you just woke up, Max. We can talk about it when you’re stronger.” _Or never_ , Chloe thought, she could go the rest of her life not having to relive every detail of what happened ever again, especially to Max. _Though I don’t think I’ll ever be able to close my eyes and not relive every minute detail in full high def._

 Max tried to catch the other girl’s eye, but Chloe was now looking everywhere but at Max, letting go of Max’s hand as she kept readjusting the the beanie on her head, standing up to pace in front of the bed. Max knew it was cliched but she still instantly missed the contact with the other girl.

 “Please, Chloe, tell me I don’t want my parents to have to hear it all again, I’m sure they’ve heard the story enough, I just really need to know, please.”

 It might have been five years but even now, Chloe wasn’t able to resist Max when she gave her that pleading, soft tone, when her face looked so damn open and like Chloe held all the answers to Life, the Universe and Everything. She thought she should be more mad than she was. Max left her, Max never called her, never kept her promise when she needed her the most, or at the time when she thought she needed her the most. But life was funny like that, turns out, Max was truly there when she needed her the most, when she was sure she was about to die, Max saved her, Max was there.  Maybe she should get over herself, give Max another chance, give their friendship another chance.

 “Yeah, Max, ok if you’re really sure, it was, it was fucking intense, hella insane. One minute I’m sure my number is up, that psycho Nathan pulled out a gun and then you come out from behind the stalls and it was like time slowed down… You were so fucking brave, Max, you yelled at him, ‘Hey, leave her alone!’. He turned around and then, the gun, it, it..” Chloe took another deep breath, so much blood, not like in the movies, “went off and you kind of spun when it hit you…”  

 Sitting back down on the edge of Max’s bed before her knees gave out remembering that moment, Chloe was lost in the horrible memory, all the fear, horror and just the insanity of it all hitting her again as if she was still in that bathroom, “Ah, you went down and I recognized you, I knew who you were as soon as you yelled out. Nathan, he freaked… well more than he already had been…” Chloe’s voice was trembling, so much blood, not like the movies at all, it was pooling in the cracks, between the floor tiles, she couldn’t stop seeing it, couldn’t stop seeing Max’s life pouring out on the dirty bathroom tiles.  

 Max reached over with her good hand and took Chloe’s shaking hand in her own, giving it a light squeeze, to let her know she was there, she was still there, trying to give the older girl any comfort she could. She had done it, she really did. She had fixed the timeline somehow. The simple act of being able to hold Chloe’s hand filled her with wonder and astonishment, she never thought she’d ever see her again, this was more than she ever would have dared asked for.

 “So, yeah, Nathan, he started freaking out, he dropped the gun then curled up on the floor, under the sink, rambling. I ran over to you, I was freaking out, I didn’t know what to do but I just took off my jacket and I was trying to apply pressure to the wound, like they taught us in that First Aid Class we took that last summer before you moved... “ Chloe was still stuck in the memory, she wanted to get it all out so hopefully she would never have to retell it again, she was so sick of going over it again and again first to David, then to the cops, then Max’s parents, her Mom, she was just tired of retelling, reliving, one of the most traumatic moments of her life. “Things started getting more hectic at that point, David ran in, he had heard the gunshot, hell the entire school heard it, kids were running through the halls screaming, convinced there was someone shooting up the school. So, um, yeah, so David called 911 and then he tackled Nathan who had gotten up and looked like he was going to go for the gun. David straight up tackled his ass and cuffed him, all the while he was telling me what to do, what to look for to help you. God, Max it felt like a fucking eternity until the cops and the ambulance got there…”

 Chloe got up, letting go of Max's hand again, pulling her beanie off as she ran her hands through her blue hair, pacing in front of Max’s hospital bed, the enormity of it all crashing down on her. She had been able to hold most of it back, put off dealing with it all while she spent all her time worrying about Max but now that the younger girl was awake, now that she telling Max what had happened, the cork had been popped on that bottle of feelings, she just wanted to get through it without breaking down. “I thought for sure you were gonna, that you weren’t gonna...”

 Max tried to sit up, to reach out to Chloe but quickly learned what a mistake it was as she felt a tugging and burning sensation with sharp shooting pain rush through her chest. “Ow, shit, ok so yeah won’t be doing that again.” Max winched.

 “Fuck, Max, are you alright?” Chloe rushed back over to the bed, her eyes searching every inch of injured girl to make sure she hadn’t pulled a stitch out or something worse.

 “Yeah, just can’t sit up I guess.” Max looked down at her chest, trying to see under her hospital gown, now that she was more aware she could feel a bandage over her chest and around her right shoulder but it was starting to worry her, now that her head had cleared up some, that she couldn’t feel anything from her right shoulder down to her fingers. “And Chloe, I did make it, you saved my life, I’m still here, I’m alive because of you.” _We’re all alive because of you._

 It was all getting to be too much for Chloe, too real, too intense. It was easier to be mad or pretend to not care than it was to deal with all these feelings bubbling over. She couldn’t look at Max, the way Max kept looking at her, like she was fucking _special_ or something when Chloe knew she wasn’t anything more than a colossal mess that made people run as far and fast from her as they could.  

 “Just returning the favor. If you hadn’t been there, I’m hella sure the fucking freak would have shot me.” Chloe took a deep breath and pushed the fear and everything back down, replacing it with her normal mask of bravado and cockiness. Yes, Max had saved her life and had almost died in the process but now that she knew Max was going to live, she couldn't allow herself to look weak or soft in front of the best friend who had walked out on her never to be heard from again for five fucking years. A small voice in her head was nagging her, telling her that she was being petty, _Max was there now. Max had taken a bullet for her_ but try as much as she might, she still couldn’t get over that Max had abandoned her all those years ago. That Max had been back in Arcadia Bay for over a month and hadn’t bothered getting in touch with her so called best friend since she’d returned. Chloe told that small voice to shut the fuck up, thank you very much. Max saved her life, she saved Max’s, they were even on that score now. But she was far from forgiving her for abandoning her all those years ago.

 Y _es, because taking a bullet wasn’t enough._ And again Chloe tried to tell her rational side, the side that wasn’t still a hurt little girl to just go fuck right on off.  

 Max’s heart sank as she saw the mask go back up and Chloe’s entire attitude change in a blink of an eye. This wasn’t the same Chloe she’d kissed on the cliff, the one who was willing to sacrifice herself to save everyone else. In this timeline, her and Chloe hadn’t spent a week trying to find out what had happened to Rachel Amber while rebuilding their friendship and even more.

  _Shit, Rachel, had Nathan confessed to killing her yet? Did Chloe know?_ Looking at the other girl, Max was pretty sure she didn’t know about Rachel. It was going to hurt her beyond belief when she found out but Max vowed, she’d be there for her. Even if Chloe tried to push her away, she’d be there for her and at least this time she could spare her from finding Rachel’s body, she could keep her from ever having that horrific experience.

 “Chloe…” Max wasn’t sure what she was going to say to the other girl, what she could say, there was so much she wanted to say but none of it would make sense or get through to this Chloe. She just wanted to get the other girl to look at her, to see how grateful she was to see that she was alive, that Nathan hadn’t killed her, that Max had found a way to save Chloe and Arcadia Bay. There was so much to repair, to rebuild but she had seen last time it was possible, her Chloe was still in there behind that hurt, anger and hard facade. She only worried if she’d be able to do it without using her powers, because there was no way she was going to use her powers again. That storm could always come back, Max was sure that storm was just waiting for her to use her powers again. Not sure if it was luck or not but right at that moment her parents walked through the door.

 “Max, oh Max, you’re awake! Thank God!” Vanessa rushed over to her daughter’s bedside, her eyes tearing up as she fussed over her only child. “Oh, sweetie, we were so scared!”

 Max tried not to look embarrassed as her mom was stroking her hair with one hand while trying to fluff the pillow under Max’s head with the other. “I’m alright, Mom, just a little sore…”

 Max’s soft reassurances were cut off as Vanessa’s mom instincts were in full force, her eyes inspected her daughter looking for anything besides her obvious injuries that the doctors might have missed or if anything new had become an issue now that Max was awake. “Shh, shh sweetie, save your strength, have some water.” Vanessa thrusted the straw into Max’s mouth before she could protest, forcing her to take a drink.

 “Mom, please, I’m fine.” Max tried to say as her mom continued to hold the straw up to her lips, Max was afraid she’d have to drink the entire cup to get her mom to move it.

 “Now, now, Vanessa, give Max a minute, sweetie.” Max’s father, Ryan, said, walking up behind his wife. Placing a hand on his wife’s shoulder and gently holding her in place to give Max a minute to breath he smiled lovingly at his daughter. “Hey, honey, how ya feeling?”

 “Hey, Dad, I’m fine, just you know, sore and a little confused.” Max said, exhaling as she tried to press into her bed to put more space between her and the cup of water she was sure her mom was going to shove in her face again as soon as she opened her mouth.

 Max’s door opened again as a dark haired nurse walked in looking down at her clipboard. She looked up and smiled as she saw Max was awake. “Well, hello there, Maxine, I’m Nurse Rachel, I’m so glad to see you’re awake. I’ll let the doctor know, he’s with another patient right now so it might be a little bit. How are you feeling?”

 “It’s Max, never Maxine.” Max replied as a reflex. The momentary high she felt at seeing her parents was quickly fading as Max watched Chloe move further and further away, her face getting more and more closed off as the blue haired girl receded into the furthest corner of the room away from Max and her parents.  

 Nurse Rachel laughed, it sounded loud in the room but not out of place, despite where they all were. “Ok, Max, how are you feeling? It sounds like you’re feeling much better.”

 Max was starting to get mildly annoyed with everyone asking her how she was feeling without giving her any context to go with. It was a loaded question to her at the moment. How was she feeling compared to watching Chloe die? Or Arcadia Bay be wiped off the map from a Tornado along with just about everyone she knew? How was she feeling? She was feeling relieved, scared, grateful, apprehensive, ecstatic, sad, panicked and a thousand other things all at once that she didn’t want to deal with at the moment. In the end she decided to go with the safe, if not completely true answer, for the moment. “Um, fine, a bit sore and stiff.”

 “That’s to be expected, we had to put you in a medically induced coma for a few days to let the area closest to your heart heal a bit after surgery without the risk of you moving around and accidentally doing any more damage so close to that area.”  The Nurse walked over to the machine next to Max’s bed and started writing down the numbers on her clipboard. “Let me just get your temperature and then I’ll be out of your hair for a bit and let the doctor know you’re awake. He can answer any questions you might have. You’ll love Dr. Patel, he’s a great guy.”

 The nurse put stuck a digital thermometer in Max’s mouth, a lot more gently than Vanessa had with the water straw moments ago. “Ok, everything is looking good, Max!” The nurse said brightly making notes on Max’s chart. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

 Chloe sat in the chair in the corner of the room, trying to fade out of the family moment. A part of her couldn’t help but be jealous of how Ryan and Vanessa Caulfield doted on Max, it was clear how loved she was. Chloe knew if anything happened to her, her own mother, Joyce, would be there the same as Vanessa, but since her dad had died, it just wasn’t the same between the two. Especially since Joyce had married the step-douche. She felt a part of her heart that she thought she had locked a long time ago suddenly ache for her father. She tried to push it back down, she was done hurting, she had worked hard to push all that shit down. Seeing Max had been bad enough, it had ripped the wound open on something she thought had long been healed. _OK, now who am I kidding? That Max shaped wound never healed, I only got better at ignoring it._

 “Why can’t I move my arm? I can’t even feel my fingers.” Max tried to keep the fear out of her voice but she couldn’t keep it from bubbling up at the look that passed between her parents.

 Sitting down gingerly on the edge of Max’s bed, her dad took her good hand in his while her mom moved to run her fingers through Max’s hair, in the same soothing manner Max remembered her mom using whenever Max was sick as a kid. Max couldn’t remember the last time her mom had tried to sooth her like this but it was having the opposite effect as the fear was trying to claw it’s way past the lump that was now firmly lodged in Max’s throat.

 “Sweetie, when you… the bullet went through your chest, missing your heart by less than a centimeter, thank God. The angle, it actually saved your life but the bul...it traveled through your shoulder doing a lot of nerve, tendon and muscle damage. They had to do surgery to remove it. The doctors are pretty certain it’s not permanent,” Ryan Caulfield said, in his most reassuring voice, trying to quickly erase the terrified look his daughter gave him. “You’re going to need another surgery they think in a few weeks once the swelling’s gone down for the damaged tendons and they think you should be getting feeling back in your hand within a matter of a week or so but with a lot of physical therapy, you should make an almost full recovery.”

 Careful of Max’s injuries, Vanessa cradled her daughter’s head as gently as she could while leaning over her in a hospital bed, rubbing the tears the escaped Max’s eyes no matter how hard she tried not to cry.

 “Almost?” Max asked a small voice.

 “Well, I’m sorry, kiddo but you’ll never pitch for the Mariners.” Ryan gently joked, tapping Max’s nose, “But the doctor said you should have full range of movement, if not full strength but they’ll know more after surgery and Physical Therapy.”

 Chloe felt like total shit, Max was going to have to through who knew how much physical therapy and bullshit for saving her life. It wasn’t fair but Chloe had learned and seen over and over how unfair life was. She had been trying to stay as still and quiet as possible, hoping to go unnoticed, afraid she’d be asked to leave and not learn the full extent of what Max was going to have to pay for saving her sorry life. She was afraid to ask herself the question that was burning in her head, begging to be asked, was it worth it? Was everything Max was going to have to go through worth saving Chloe? _No, it wasn’t worth it, she wasn’t worth it._

 “So this..paralysis in my arm, it’s temporary?” Max asked hopefully. The irony that it was her right arm, the one that she used for her rewind power was the one that was paralyzed was not lost on her. After everything she’d been through, she had no intention of ever using it again but it was different when it was her choice not to use it, quite a different one when it was taken from her.

 “That’s what the doctors all think, sweetie.” Vanessa said, lightly kissing the top of Max’s head. While her parents had been explaining everything to her, she had been trying to catch Chloe’s eye, to let her know she didn’t blame her for any of this but the older girl was so closed off, her arms crossed, pulled into herself, as if she was trying to make herself as small as possible, invisible which was a far cry from the girl who almost demanded everyone’s attention.

 Even though she was the one in the hospital bed, Max wanted to climb out of it and comfort Chloe. She could already tell by the look on Chloe’s face she was blaming herself but that was only because she didn’t know the alternative, that without Max being shot, it would have been Chloe who had been shot and there was no amount of physical therapy that could fix death.

 “We’ve already found a great physical therapist, one of the best in Seattle and close to home so getting you there and back won’t be a problem and he comes highly recommended by Dr. Patel.” Max was pulled out of her musings as her Mom went on.

 “Wait, what?” Max jerked her head around so fast she felt a bit dizzy, looking at her Mom, who for her part looked a bit shocked at the sudden movement, her hand in mid air where it was once stroking Max’s head. She was so startled by what she heard she barely registered the pain the action caused her protesting body. “What do you mean one of the best in Seattle? I’m not leaving Arcadia Bay, I’m not leaving Chl...school, Blackwell.”  

 At the sound of Vanessa mentioning Seattle, Chloe sat straight up, not caring if they noticed her listening or not. Max had just come back into her life, she couldn’t leave already, Chloe wasn’t done being pissed off at her to allow for them to make up and be friends again, there wasn’t enough time. There was a process to observe, a best friends code of sorts that said the wronged party, that being her, Chloe who had been left and forgotten about for 5 years from her said best friend, Max, got to be pissed and sarcastic to said best friend for a number of weeks until which time the party that wrong the other would be forgiven. Granted taking a bullet for Chloe definitely shortened that period of time that Chloe could realistically stay pissed at Max but still, a half day of consciousness wasn’t nearly long enough.

 “Maxine, sweetie…”

 “Max, never Maxine.”

 “Max, sweetie,” Vanessa started again in that voice that she used whenever she felt like Max was being unreasonable but Max only found it condescending at the moment, not pacifying as her mother intended. “You’re hurt, you require physical therapy, you can’t take care of yourself with your injuries, honey, it’s not safe and Seattle has better doctors. And don’t get me started on that school, Max, your father and I have half a mind to sue them! We trusted them to take care of you, instead you end up getting shot!”

 Max cringed as her Mom’s voice hitched at the end. The fear and helplessness her parents must have felt being in Seattle when Max was hurt, she can’t even imagine. She can’t even blame her parents but at the same time, she went through hell, possibly literally, Max shuddered at the thought of that last vision or nightmare she had, to be here with Chloe, even if this reality’s Chloe doesn’t know it, Max knows and she is not leaving after everything she went through.

 “Mom, I know you’re upset, but I’m not leaving, I want to finish school here and, and I don’t want to switch doctors now, especially if I need more surgery.” Max knew it was a weak argument even if it sound more grown up and mature in her head she can tell by her mom’s face she was not buying it. “You even said this was just temporary, so it’s not much different from a broken arm and you wouldn’t make me leave school for that.” Max looked at her dad, silently begging for his help but even he looked like he agreed with her mom, which was the worst.

 “This isn’t a broken arm, Max, you were shot, in school. We can’t just ignore that. I think it might be best if you came home and finish school there.” Ryan said, his voice shook just thinking about anyone hurting his daughter. Where her mother’s voice was filled with fear more than anything, Max could hear the anger in her father’s voice. It was chilling as she had only seen her father truly pissed off once in her life and that was when she was 16 and just learning to drive.

 A guy hadn’t slowed down for a stop sign and hit them, luckily he slammed on the brakes at the last minute so only Max’s door had been dented and she only got a mild headache but Ryan had jumped out of the car so fast and pulled the other guy from his car, screaming at him how he could have killed his daughter. Max had never been more afraid of him or happy that he was her father than she had been at that moment.

 “I know this isn’t what you want to hear but I’m legally an adult now, I should be able to make my own choice on where I go to school. I worked hard for that scholarship. Nathan is in jail, most the kids at school are great.” Max didn’t want to pull the adult card but they weren’t leaving her much choice, she was not leaving Chloe again. In this timeline, or any other, ever again.  “Plus, I can do my physical therapy here, Chloe will take me, right?”

 Chloe stood up, ignoring the fact that the entire Caulfield family was now staring at her expectantly. She never realized until just than that Max’s eyes were a perfect blend of her parents. She had the exact same shade of blue as her father along with the warmth and curiosity but the same shape as her mom’s that also mirrored the same determination Chloe saw burning in both the Caulfield women’s eyes presently.

  _But if they could all stop staring at me that would be hella cool right about now._

 She put on a cocky smile, trying to ignore the scowl on Vanessa’s face. She knew it wasn’t directed at her, right, well she was pretty sure it wasn’t.  She took a couple steps towards Max’s hospital bed, trying to look nonchalant, like taking care of Max wasn’t a big deal, _at all_.  She shrugged, “Yeah, of course, it’s the least I can do and I know Joyce won’t mind having Max stay at our house until she’s able to be on her own again. I can take her to and from school and PT.”

 Chloe mentally kicked herself, why did she offer to let Max stay with her? She figured she owed her enough to drive her ass around but why would she willingly volunteer to babysit Max as well? Then she saw the grateful smile Max gave her and realized that she’d probably do more than her brain would readily admit right than if it meant she got to see Max smile like that at her again. _No, one hella heroic act didn’t make up for 5 years of neglect and abandonment, did it?_ Chloe was confused and emotionally drained, it was really too much too fast but she kept that sure smile on her face so Max’s parents wouldn’t see how unsure she was feeling. _This is the least you can do for her, Price, suck it up and stop being so damn selfish._

 “Dammit, Max, you’re not 12 years old again wanting to go with Chloe to summer camp for two weeks.” Vanessa said exasperatedly, “This is a serious situation! You could have been killed and that little punk is the son of the most powerful family in this town. Your father and I aren’t willing to risk you being hurt again.”

“It’s not your choice to make anymore, Mom, and Chloe will look out for me!” Max shot back, refusing to backdown.

 “Ok, ok let’s all just calm down for a minute. Emotions are running high, so let’s just take a breath.” Ryan cut in before things got much more out of hand. He was torn between wanting to take Max home with them and never letting her out of the house until she was 30 and realizing that his daughter had grown up to be the person he always wanted her to be, strong, independent and smart. He knew his wife would be pissed at him but he could see the stubborn look on Max’s face, there was no way they were getting her to leave Arcadia Bay for whatever her reasons were. Though, he felt much better about it knowing that Max would have Chloe with her. They had always looked out for each other growing up.

 While Chloe might look a lot different than the 14 year old girl she was when they had moved, he’d been around her enough the last week to know that she was still the same girl who had spent countless days and nights at their home growing up, who had carried Max home on her back for 9 blocks when Max had twisted her ankle when she was 8, who had convinced Max that there weren’t any monster under her bed, who had always looked out for his daughter. He always felt as if Max had lost a bit of herself when they moved and she didn’t have Chloe in her life anymore, like Max had floundered a bit to find herself and make new friends.

 He knew his next words could land him one way ticket to the guest room for the foreseeable future but he also knew that they were fighting a losing battle. Vanessa was terrified, as he was, but she wasn’t able to look past that to see that there was no talking Max out of this.

 “Max, your mom and I are obviously concerned about you and want you where we can keep an eye on you to make sure you’re safe.” Ryan held up his hand to stop the protests he knew Max was about to make, “But you’re right, you are an adult now and we can’t watch you every minute of everyday. So, as long as it’s fine with Joyce, you can stay.” He then held up his hand to stop the protests he knew were about to come from his wife. “But you have to call us everyday. Even though you’re technically an adult, you’re still our little girl and we want to be sure you’re fine and for the rest of the school year, we expect you home at least once a month.”

 If Max could sit up,she would have thrown her arms around her father but had to settle for giving him her biggest smile.

 “Thank you, Daddy.” Max had to stop herself from throwing a triumphant grin at her mom, it wasn’t often Max was able to go against Vanessa when her mom had set down the law.

 “Ryan, don’t you think we should talk about this further?” Vanessa glared at her husband, her face pinched up with barely contained outrage that she had been overrode without so much as a serious discussion.

 Looking up, Max, softly smiled at her mom instead. Vanessa wasn’t a bad mother in the least, she was amazing, if a tad over protective, but Max couldn’t fault her for that. Max knew she was lucky, her parents doted over her, they always had and after everything she had been through recently, she appreciated them so much more. Taking her mom’s hand with her good one, Max, held it tightly.

 “Mom, I’ll call everyday and come visit you and dad once a month so you can see for yourself I’m fine. We can even skype so you can see between visits how much better I’m doing. I really need to finish school here and you can’t put me in a bubble, as much as you want to. I love how much you both want to protect me but you have to trust that you raised me right.” Vanessa’s face softened at Max’s words. Max pressed on, feeling only a small pang of guilt as she lied straight to her parents faces, “What happened was a fluke, a one time thing, it’s not like the kids at Blackwell are running around armed. Nathan was a one off and now he’s been taken care of. Besides, I’m going to be calling and skyping with you so much, you’re going to get sick of me.”

 Vanessa sighed, admitting defeat but not before she tried one last time, regardless of how half hearted it was by this point, “Are you sure, Max, really sure because it would make me feel so much better if you were home with your dad and I.”

 Oh, Mom guilt, this was something Chloe was well versed in, though this was a pretty pathetic attempt. Joyce had used Mom guilt much more effectively just to get Chloe to have dinner with her and the step-ass. With a good kid like Max, she probably never had to use it much so she was out of practice. Chloe rolled her eyes as she leaned up against the wall across from Max’s bed, not as far from the conversation as before but not close enough to have to be an active participant.

 Inwardly rolling her eyes, Max smiled at her mom again, “Yes, Mom, I am 100% sure this is what I want.” Max forced her eyes not to glance over at Chloe when she said that. She kept looking between her parents, deliberately nowhere even in the same area where the taller girl stood, sure that with one look everyone in the room would guess why she was so determined to stay in Arcadia Bay.

 “Fine, but don’t think you can’t change your mind at anytime, I’ll be in my car before you even hang up.”

 Of that Max had no doubt, she could already picture her Mom sitting at home with her shoes and coat on, keys in hand, purse on her shoulder every night, just on the off chance Max changed her mind. “I know, Mom, and I love you for that.”

 The matter settled as much as it could be, Max and her parents made some small talk for a few minutes until the doctor, Dr. Patel, came into the room to talk to Max, telling her what her parents already had about her injuries and recovery. Chloe was starting to feel like a caged animal in the room, Max was alive, Max was awake, there wasn’t really anything she could do at that point but go home and let Joyce know what was going on and how Chloe had offered to let Max stay with them while she recovered. Of course, Joyce would say yes, that was never a question, Chloe knew her mom would be overjoyed at having Max there.

 Chloe tried to leave quietly, not wanting to interrupt the doctor. She tried to ignore the disappointment she saw in Max’s blue eyes as she gave her a wave on her way out. “I’ll see you tomorrow” Chloe mouthed as she walked out the door.

 Chloe stepped outside the front entrance of the hospital and took in deep breath, trying to get the stale hospital air out of her lungs. The sun was setting, casting warm hues of gold, yellow and purple through the trees, Chloe walked over to her beloved beat up truck, opened the door to sit down, and lit a cigarette as she processed the last hour or so. She sat sideways, he legs hung out the door as she watched the sun sink lower behind the trees.

 The fact that after 5 years of radio silence, that Max should happen to be in that bathroom at that particular moment in time wasn’t something Chloe had given much thought to before than. She had been too busy making deals with whatever deity was out there to save Max’s life to put much thought into the how’s and the why’s. Despite all the holy deals she’s been making the last 6 days, Chloe didn’t really believe in God. To do so would be to believe that there was some omniscient being that took an active role in making sure he life was as shitty and painful as possible. And, damn if that wasn’t a depressing enough thought.

 Still, after seeing Max and all that followed, it did make Chloe wonder, because if that wasn’t some huge cosmic mind fuck she didn’t know what was. Chloe stood up, dropped her cigarette and crushed it into the ground. She turned to look up at Max’s hospital room window before getting in her truck and pulling away.

_Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine._

 


	2. Pause it, Play, Pause it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max wonders what she's changed in the timeline, Chloe wonders where her tennis ball went, Nurse Rachel wonders what happened to Max, Vanessa wonders where her husband wandered off to, Warren wonders if he's invisible.

_Hey now think about what to do,_   
_think about what to say,_   
_think about how to think  
Pause it play, pause it play, pause it_

  


Max shifted in the bed, trying to get comfortable, now that she was awake and the drugs had mostly worn off, she was feeling all the aches and pains in her body. It was late, if the time on the clock had anything to say about it but Max had learned that time was more of an idea than a fixed point in her experience. Her parents had left a couple hours ago, staying well past the allowed visiting hours which was to be expected considering where Max was and why she was there. She couldn’t fault them for wanting, no, needing to keep their eyes on her for as long as humanly allowed. She had felt the same when she woke up and saw Chloe. She had spent almost a week sleeping, she was wide awake, her mind unable to slow down as thoughts, memories and questions ran a nonstop parade through her head. Of course almost all of them centered on a certain blue haired girl with a very appealing punk aesthetic.  

Chloe, such a small name considering the huge amount of thoughts and feelings it brought up. It might as well have been the longest word in the English language for the way Max reacted to it. She had no clue what she was going to do, how she was going to be able to bridge the gap that seemed to make the Grand Canyon look small in comparison. To say she was disappointed at how fast it seemed Chloe couldn’t wait to get out of there was an understatement. Max kept going through everything from the other timelines, well almost everything. She very deliberately stopped herself from thinking about Jefferson and anything connected with him, forcing her thoughts to stop with a mantra of _Chloe kissed me, Chloe loved me, we can get there again._ Still, Max wasn’t in so much denial that she was willing to turn off the small light over her bed.

Thoughts of everything they had done, that had brought them to that place, not only physically on the cliff by the lighthouse, but emotionally. Where they were both at the same place to admit that their friendship was much deeper than friendship. Max thought she always knew, some part of her always knew that she was in love with her best friend. Thinking back, Chloe was always the standard that she held everyone else too. It was so ingrained into her DNA, her personality that she didn’t even realize she was doing it most of the time until some random thought would pop in her head like ‘ _Chloe would have loved this idea, Chloe would have found that funny, Chloe would have understood’._ It wasn’t as if Max had been a friendless freak in Seattle, she had a few good friends but never another best friend. There was a part of her that always held back, that made her anxious because these new friends, these new people, she didn't know what they were going to say or do. She couldn’t tell in just one glance what they were feeling or thinking. She was always on the shy side but it got much worse when she didn’t have Chloe there to drag her out of her shell. Her social anxiety only increased.

The changes to this timeline meant that a lot of the things her and Chloe had shared, which had rekindled their friendship along with new realizations about their feelings, would never happen. The thought didn’t scare Max as much as it should have. There was a firm conviction inside her that she knew, without a doubt that her and Chloe were meant to be. She couldn’t think of a single other reason why she would have been given this power, this ability to save Chloe’s life if it wasn’t because they were suppose to be together.

_Really? The only reason you can think of or the only reason you’re willing to believe?_ Max heard the other Max from her nightmare in her head sneer. Max shuddered wondering if that side of her was a true reflection of one facet of her personality that she keep buried deep in her subconscious or if it was a fractured Max from a different timeline a result of the way she had kept bending and twisting time to fit her needs.

Thinking about her power and the reason for it, Max looked down at her currently useless arm. Her doctor had said that she’d get a sling for it in a few days when they released her. Maybe this was the cosmic payback the storm demand, or some universal force giving her a time out from her powers as it was. Max hadn’t set out to abuse her powers, but she also knew that the road to hell was paved with good intentions. There was a knot of apprehension in her stomach that the universe or whatever wasn’t quite done with her, that for every action there was an equal or greater reaction. But wasn’t saving Chloe her reward or her cashing in her karma after living through the Dark.. the Jefferson shit? Saving Nathan from being killed as disturbed as he was, stopping Jefferson from ever hurting another girl, for getting justice for Rachel, for saving Kate? She really hoped that all of that was enough to equal out the one main selfish thing she did which was to save Chloe without destroying Arcadia Bay. It was crazy to think she would ever understand how all of this worked, as if there was some cosmic scales weighing Max’s choices, judging them to see which side they fell on until they balanced out.

Max shifted again, her head was starting to hurt, whether from all the over thinking or from the throbbing in her chest she wasn’t sure. It was probably a combination of both. While Chloe was her number one priority, she wasn’t the only person she was worried about. She had to check on Kate, to see how Nathan’s arrest was affecting her. Max was confused, why hadn’t she heard about Jefferson being arrested? Why hadn’t they said anything about Nathan killing Rachel Amber? Max had been watching the news earlier and the only thing they said was Nathan was being questioned still in connection to other crimes, it was a developing story.

Before they had left, Max’s parents had told her that she would need to speak to the police, to give her statement on what happened. It was going to be hard, to only tell them what she should only know in this timeline. Not being able to tell them about the Dar...about Jefferson and where Rachel’s body was buried… how it had gotten there. It didn’t make sense, Max thought that things would be fixed the minute Nathan was arrested, he was so on edge, she thought for sure he would have spilled everything the minute they started questioning him. An uneasy feeling started to creep up on Max. Maybe she hadn’t gotten justice for Rachel yet, maybe Nathan hadn’t given up Jefferson yet. A cold sweat broke out on the back of Max’s neck as the uneasy feeling grew into dread, her heart was pounding in her chest, increasing the rate of the beeps from the machine next to her.  Maybe Jefferson was still out there, running free...

She needed her phone, she had to look online to see if there was more information on what Nathan was saying to the police. She needed to know more than the 4 minutes she heard on the news earlier.

Even though it was after midnight, Max pressed the call button for the nurse. She had to know, it was rapidly becoming an all consuming thought, she had to get rid of the dread that had over taken her.

“Hey, Max, is everything alright?” the same nurse from earlier, Nurse Rachel, asked as she walked through the door a few minutes later. She took a look at the monitor with Max’s elevated heart rate and quirked a well sculpted, dark eyebrow, concern flashed across her face. Max had been taking deep breaths while waiting, trying in vain to calm herself down.

“Um, yeah, I, I really need my cellphone, I’ve been out for almost a week, I really need to see what I’ve missed.” Max made a heroic effort to pushed aside the panic, to act as if she was bored, looking for a way to pass the time like any other teenager who was constantly glued to their cellphones.

“It’s after midnight, Max, you need your rest. Is the pain keeping you awake?” Nurse Rachel walked over to the machine next to Max to look at her vitals, she pressed a few buttons, made a few hmm noises before she took to look at Max, her deep brown eyes etched with sympathy. “Aw, it looks like you’re due for another dose of your pain meds, these should help you sleep, too.”

The machine started beeping rapidly as soon as Nurse Rachel grabbed a syringe from the drawer under the machine and pulled out a vial from her scrubs pocket. Blind panic hit Max, her eyes went wide, her small frame shook. No, she couldn’t go to sleep, she couldn’t let them drug her. Flashes of Jefferson in the Dark Room coming at her with the syringe, her mind foggy as he kept snapping pictures, the flash, the syringe… He could be out there, he could be waiting just outside her room for her to be too drugged up...

“No, please, no needles, I can handle the pain. Please...” Max begged. Her face showing the terror that was spilling out over her, consuming her.  

Nurse Rachel looked critically at Max, she had worked in the hospital for over 16 years and had seen all sorts but Max’s visceral reaction to the syringe was the most immediate and severe she could ever recall seeing. There was something else going on, something she knew had to be very traumatic for the petite, girl laying in the bed before her. “Shh, shhh, it’s ok, Max, no one is going to hurt you, I promise. Please, Max, calm down, you’ll hurt yourself.”

Max was shaking uncontrollably while shrinking back on her bed, getting as far from the syringe as possible, she still felt the pinch on her neck from another timeline, something that had never happened in this timeline but had happened to Max all the same.

“I don’t need it, really, I’m fine, I don’t need, keep it away, please.”

The pure terror in Max’s blue eyes made Nurse Rachel pause, she didn’t want to go against Max’s wishes but at the same time if Max didn’t settle down she risked further injury to herself, it wouldn’t take much to reopen up the wound in her chest or even do further damage to her right shoulder. She went to reach out, to calm Max down but the brunette cowered back, throwing her good arm over her eyes. Her breathing was erratic, as she tried to take huge gulps of air.  

“Max, Max,” Nurse Rachel called out to try and reach Max through her terror., “Sweetie, I don’t have to use the syringe on you. It’s ok, you’re fine I promise you, I just need to put it in your IV bag, that’s all, honey.”

Close to hyperventilating, Max couldn’t hear the nurse, she kept seeing Jefferson, hearing his voice, the flash of the camera, the feel of the syringe going in her neck.  

Realizing there was nothing she could do to reach her patient, Nurse Rachel emptied the syringe into the IV, the sooner she got her patient to calm down the better she would be and the less chance she had to do further injury to herself. Max still had her arm over her eyes, whimpering, her body shaking like a leaf in the middle of a storm.

“Look, Max, look, sweetie, I’m putting it away, see it’s all gone.” Nurse Rachel said in soothing tones holding up the syringe and making a show of putting it in the receptacle bin for medical waste. “It’s ok, sweet child, oh, Max, honey, what happened to you?”

Nurse Rachel sat on the side of Max’s bed and gently gathered the upset girl into her arms, mindful of her injuries, as if she was her own daughter. There was nothing else she could do, every instinct in her as a Nurse and a Mother pulled at her. Max was still breathing heavy but not having the syringe in view was helping her gain control over her emotions. She allowed the Nurse to hold her and gently rock her as she whispered soothing words. “Oh, sweetie, I don’t know what happened to you but you’re safe now, Nurse Rachel isn’t going to let anyone hurt you here. You’re ok, Max, you’re safe now, no one can hurt you here.”

Max was too caught up in her panic attack to feel embarrassed, she didn’t resist the comfort the older woman was giving her. Slowly, her thoughts started calming down, this wasn’t the same feeling she’d had when Jefferson had drugged her. It felt more like a warm embrace as she started falling asleep, thoughts of Jefferson replaced with images of Chloe dancing on her bed, riding in Chloe’s truck listening to some old Saves the Day on the cd player, playing pirates with Chloe when they were kids. These images grounded her until her breathing evened out and she was asleep.

Nurse Rachel gently got up, carefully moving Max’s head to rest on the pillow. She looked down at the sleeping girl, her heart hurting for whatever the small girl was going through. Looking over Max’s chart, there were no mentions of a history of panic attacks. This must be a result of the shooting, she assumed, she made a note on Max’s chart to have one of the hospitals psychologists come and talk to the brunette.

In her 16 years she’s had never had to comfort anyone in such a manner, she can’t remember if she’s ever seen such a look of terror on someone’s face so young. Shaking her head sadly at the long road ahead for Max Caulfield, she walked out of the room, determined to make sure that girl got the help she needed.

 

* * *

 

**Bang…**

Chloe took a long drag from her joint, the astray on her stomach as she laid down sideways on her bed, feet propped up on the wall.

**Bang…**

_Why hadn’t Max contacted her when she found out she was coming back to Arcadia Bay?_

**Bang…**

Chloe released the smoke, watched it swirl above her head, wondered if she could read it like people read tea leaves.

**Bang...**

_Why hadn’t she even called since she’d been back?_

**Bang…**

Chloe took another long drag.

**Bang…**

“Dammit, Chloe, knock it off, I’m trying to sleep!”

The sound of David yelling from across the hall caused her to miss the tennis ball she’d been tossing against the wall and catching for the last half an hour. It bounced off the wall and hit her in the forehead before rolling off the bed and out of sight. She coughed up the smoke she’d be holding in her lungs to the point of feeling dizzy.

“I’m not doing anything!” She yelled back because technically she wasn’t doing anything, anymore. “Asshole” she added under her breath.

The clock on her desk said it was just after 10pm, Joyce would be home soon from the diner then she could tell her mom how she’d offered their home to Max to recover at. Joyce wouldn’t mind, that wasn’t the problem. The problem was Chloe wasn’t sure why she offered. Sure, she’d drive Max to and from physical therapy but part of her knew that Vanessa would have put up a much bigger fight if Max was planning on going right back to her dorm. For some reason the thought of Max leaving when Chloe just found out she was there really bothered her. Denial wasn’t just a river in Egypt. On the other hand, Max hadn’t even bothered contacting her even after she’d been back so maybe Max didn’t want Chloe in her life, she certainly hadn’t acted like she did for the last 5 years. Besides, once Max saw what a fuck up Chloe had grown up to be she was sure Max would run as far and as fast as she could from the mess Chloe had grown into, just like Rachel had.

_Rachel, where the fuck are you?_  After putting up hundreds of fliers, calling the Ambers and checking in with the ABPD regularly, Chloe was no closer to finding her lost friend. Her head told her that there was no way, no matter what, that Rachel would have just left her without even contacting her but then she couldn’t be sure because Max had promised to call, write, stay in touch and Chloe hadn’t heard from her until she was getting shot right in front of Chloe’s face. So it wasn’t like Chloe didn’t have any experience in people just up and leaving without a word to her again, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. But Rachel wasn’t Max. Rachel knew how much Max never contacting her had fucked her up, Rachel would never do the same to her. But it was much easier to believe that Rachel was being a careless bitch than it was to think about the alternative, especially because her parents hadn’t heard from her either.

Chloe had met Rachel a month before Rachel turned 16. Rachel had just moved to Arcadia Bay with her family. It was a hot June day and Chloe was down at the beach, sitting on the edge of the sand, letting the waves lap against her feet, smoking a joint. A shadow had fell on her as she felt someone sit next to her. She was going to give her customary fuck off and sneer until she looked at the girl sitting next to her and almost dropped her joint into the surf.

She was the prettiest thing Chloe ever did see, like a California dream. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail at the base of her neck and she was smiling at Chloe with the most knowing smile. It was almost painful how perfect her smile was coupled with the look Rachel had in her hazel eyes when she looked at Chloe, like she knew some secret and was going to share it with Chloe. Rachel sat down, not caring that the long flowing skirt she was wearing would get ruined by the sand and the water. She smiled that smile at Chloe then took the joint right of Chloe’s mouth and took a long pull before handing it back. They became inseparable that summer.

The only reason Chloe had even gone to Blackwell was because Rachel talked her into it and she got free tuition because David worked there. Something changed though, when they started going there, Rachel changed. She had always been popular but she always had time for Chloe. Little by little though Rachel started hanging out with other people, started making more memories without Chloe, started having secrets that she kept from Chloe. It was a gradual change, one that Chloe didn’t realize until it was to late and it felt as if Rachel had this whole other life without Chloe, even though they still talked every day, even though they saw each other almost every day. It got really bad after Chloe got kicked out of school.

That was the start, Rachel would make plans with Chloe then break them at the last minute or show up hours late with some lame excuse. It started putting a distance between them no matter how hard Chloe tried to keep it from growing it kept getting bigger until Chloe didn’t know where Rachel was, or what she was doing for days at a time. Chloe knew it was pathetic, she would readily admit it was, that she spent her days waiting around for Rachel, waiting for a call or for her best friend to show up while Rachel had this other life away from Chloe. A life with other friends, other things to do. Rachel was involved in school activities, clubs, she had homework, she got into the Vortex Club. She had a life, Chloe only had Rachel.

There wasn’t any one thing or event that Chloe could point to and say, there, this is when it started to change, it was a thousand different things that added up to the point where half of Chloe fully believed Rachel would have skipped town without her and the other convinced she would never do that. Rachel knew Chloe was in love with her, Chloe had confessed it enough even during that first summer. That never seemed to cause a problem or awkwardness between them. Rachel loved the attention, loved that Chloe was in love with her, she even loved Chloe but she was never in love with Chloe.

Rachel welcomed Chloe’s attention and would even make out with her when they were drunk or lonely or in front of guys but it never went beyond that and Chloe understood how it was. It didn’t stop her from getting jealous at times but she understood. She even went out and had a few boy toys of her own, mostly to prove to Rachel she understood that they wouldn’t be together in the way Chloe wanted, to show Rachel it wasn’t a big deal and maybe, in her moments of self awareness, to make Rachel a little jealous. Rachel wouldn’t have left Chloe just because Chloe was in love with her because Chloe had been in love with her since they had met. Rachel didn’t know a version of Chloe that wasn’t in love with her. That’s how it was between them.

But now Rachel was missing and Chloe was the only one who still cared, who was still looking. Now, she kept her memories of Rachel locked in a box that she held close in almost sacred reverence. Sometimes, she thought she’d go to Los Angeles and look for Rachel herself there. Sometimes she thought she’d open a magazine and see Rachel’s hazel eyes staring back at her with that knowing look in them still. Sometimes she’d have awful dreams that she was too late and Rachel was being sold as a sex slave or even worse. Given the choice between awful and fucking horrible, Chloe would take “fucking horrible” before she ever accepted “or worse”. Her mind wouldn’t allow her to go there, it would flirt with the idea before Chloe could feel herself get physically sick and have to smoke up to forget the thought of the merest hint of that idea ever firmly forming.  

The sound of the front door closing pulled Chloe out of her thoughts of Rachel. It was much easier to think of Rachel than to think of Max. All she had been doing was worrying about Max and thinking about Max for the last 6 days, to the point where she started feeling guilty because she hadn’t been thinking about Rachel. And really how messed up was that?

“Hi, hun, how’s Max doing?” Joyce asked as Chloe walked into the kitchen. Joyce was going through some of the mail, her mouth frowning at yet another bill stamped past due. For a woman in her 40s, Joyce was still in great shape, slender with toned arms from years of carrying plates to hungry diners. Her honey brown hair only held a few streaks of gray, since William had passed away there were a few more lines around her green eyes but they gave her more character than aged her.

“She finally woke up and remembered who I was, which you know, shocking considering I thought she had forgotten I existed.” Chloe shrugged, as if it didn’t bother her, as if she hadn’t been an emotional wreck and in tears the first three days Max was unconscious until Ryan and Vanessa had convinced her that Max wasn’t going to die.

Knowing her daughter as well as she did, Joyce wasn’t buying it but refused to be baited into _that_ topic with her daughter. When Chloe got like this her mom knew she was looking for a reason to fight, as a way to vent out the confusing emotions she couldn’t deal with. Better, in Chloe’s mind, to start an argument with her or David than facing what was really bothering her. Joyce had sent Chloe to counselors and even had her on an antidepressant but she still had problems coping with certain things, Max being one of them.

“That’s great news, sweetie!” Joyce looked up from the mail and smiled at Chloe, ignoring the scowl on her daughter face. “Any news on when they’re going to let her come home?”

“Yeah, about that,” Chloe started, looking down at the floor, shifting from foot to foot, her blue hair covering her eyes like a blue barrier between her and her mom, hands jammed in her pockets. “Ah, do you mind if Max stays here for a little bit? Her right shoulder is pretty messed up so she really can’t stay in the dorms by herself.”

“Of course she can! I wouldn’t think of letting her stay anywhere else, Max is always welcome here.” Joyce smiled, she was happily surprised but had learned to show restraint expressing when she was pleased at something Chloe had done or said, it made her daughter more surly. Chloe refused to see any of the good she had in her and worked at pushing it as far away from her as possible, it broke Joyce’s heart. She only wanted to see her little girl happy, a dream she hadn’t give up even after all this time.

“Yeah, I figured you wouldn’t mind, you’ve always loved Max.” Chloe replied, even though she didn’t say it outloud, they both heard the unspoken, _more than me._

“Well, she was like a second daughter to me when you two were growing up. I’m glad you two are reconnecting.” Joyce said carefully, not wanting Chloe to take it the wrong way and beat herself up even more than she already did. Chloe had fully convinced herself that she was less than or only tolerated, regardless of how much Joyce had tried to show her that she was important, she was loved so much by herself and even David.

“Kind of hard not to when she took a bullet for me.”

Joyce looked up sharply, her heart squeezing at the very thought of what could have happened to her daughter. While she was horrified that Max had been hurt, it was an impossible situation because Chloe could have been killed. Joyce didn’t want to think about what could have happened if Max hadn’t been there. It made her feel like a horrible person, that she would be thankful that Max was there and got hurt, instead of Chloe being killed. It was such an abhorrent thing to be thankful for. But there it was and Joyce had to deal with the lesser of two evils no matter how much it broke her heart.

“Chloe, don’t be flippant, not about this.” Joyce reprimanded her daughter, “You could have been hurt or worse. It’s horrible enough Max was hurt but what if he hadn’t stopped there?” Joyce’s voice softened as she reached out and brushed the bright blue hair out of Chloe’s face, mildly surprised when the girl didn’t pull back but allowed Joyce the motherly touch. “Chlo, I can’t lose you, too, not after your father. You’re my greatest joy, the best thing I’ve ever done, even when you’re being a little shit.”

It made Chloe uncomfortable, soft tender moments with her Mom, or most anyone, really. She wasn’t use to the soft moments, she lived in the hard edges and sharp angles. The soft spaces didn’t allow her a place to grip onto, to anchor herself. She found anger, despair and regret much more honest than the soft moments. Soft moments were whispers, too quiet, too easy to lie or say things you didn’t mean. She craved the loudness of screaming her words, hurling them like missiles, the truth dropping like bombs.

The younger woman resisted the urge to make a sarcastic remark, even she knew when her mom was at her limits, her breaking point. Instead she gave her mom a grin, throwing an arm around her shoulders.

“Well, how about you make your greatest joy some of your greatest pancakes?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure if people wanted longer chapters or super long chapters broken up, let me know. This is the first half of the chapter, it ended up being close to 11k words so I broke it up but in the future if the majority of people are fine with long chapters then I won't split them. Also, all mistakes are mine but if someone wants to offer to be my BETA I wouldn't say no.


	3. Chocolate vs Homework

_I'm wide awake_   
_She's upfront upshot_   
_Upstart up in every case_   
_The kind of girl that whispers_   
_Thank god for you_

Once again, Max woke up, her mind fuzzy and groggy but this time there wasn't a blue haired girl to greet her. The events of the night before crowding into her mind, giving her an instant headache. _Great, I acted like a complete mental patient last night. Oh man, I'm so embarrassed. What the hell was that? I literally thought Jefferson was right outside my door waiting for me. I need to get a grip._

"Hey, honey, how are you feeling?" Next to her bed Vanessa sat reading a magazine. Seeing that Max was awake she set it on the table and picked up a cup of water sitting on Max's tray.

"Mom, I can drink myself." Max quickly reached out for the cup before Vanessa could drown her again. Vanessa handed the cup to Max with a self depreciating smile, knowing full well she was being overbearing but not able to help herself.

"I know, I know, let me baby you while I can, alright?" Vanessa brushed Max's brown bangs off her forehead, her hand lightly tweaking Max's earlobe like she use to do when Max was a little kid.

"Ok, but I can really get my own drink." Max took a sip to emphasize her point. "Where's dad?"

"Oh, he's around, he had to make a few phone calls." Vanessa didn't exactly avoid the question so much as answered as vaguely as possible. If she hadn't forced her casual tone or the lack of eye contact, Max might have not given it a second thought but Vanessa was acting avoidy and that caught Max's attention.

"Oh, to who? Work?"

"Ah, no, I wanted to talk to you about this when your father was here and could tell us more but he's talking to an attorney. We don't want you to talk to the police without one due to who it was that, that shot you." It wasn't that Max's parents thought she has done anything wrong, no one did but Ryan and Vanessa knew how the Prescott's were. They were part of the reason the Caulfields had left, indirectly.

Ryan had been hired to design some new subdivisions for the Prescott's development company but when he was going through the zoning laws, he had discovered that the majority of the project was on land that was protected from the Endangered Species Act. It was the home for a small group of Northern Spotted Owl's, so no development could be done on the land. While Sean Prescott had never told him personally, he had a lackey deliver the message that he wanted an environmental impact report to be done in his favor. Ryan refused and had found it hard to get any more Architectural jobs in Arcadia Bay after that. When he was offered a position at a large firm in Seattle he was more than happy to take it.

"I don't need an attorney, I had every right to be there. He's the one who was in the girls bathroom with a gun." Max was confused, why would she need an attorney, she hadn't done anything wrong, well at least nothing illegal.

"We know that, Max, but the Prescotts have a lot of money for very expensive lawyers. We would feel a lot better if you had one to protect you when talking to the police, to ensure that you don't say anything that could be twisted in any way that could help getting that, that… sorry excuse for a human off the hook for what he did to you." Vanessa was agitated. While the police hadn't told her officially, the Caulfields still had friends in Arcadia Bay, one of them being a current police sergeant there.

He had unofficially, as in if you say anything I will deny it, told Ryan that the current angle the Prescotts were trying to work was that Nathan had shot Max in self defense. That Chloe was trying to blackmail him and had made some threats against him. His argument was that he had brought the gun to school because he was afraid and when Max came out of nowhere he thought that she was going to hurt him, that she was part of some plan to do harm to him, so he shot her. The fact that Chloe and Max had a history didn't help at all.

As it was, they were still looking into pressing charges against Chloe for blackmailing Nathan. The entire thing was not only ludicrous but obscene as well. Taking victim blaming to a whole new level that only expensive lawyers who had sold their souls to the devil long ago had no qualms on arguing.

"Wait, how could he get away with shooting me? He was in the girl's bathroom at school with a gun and shot me! How could anyone talk their way out of that regardless of who they are or how much money they have?" Max was beyond confused as she attempted to grasp how it was possible that Nathan could get away with shooting her. That he could get away with Rachel, with everything he had done, everything he and Jefferson had done. That wasn't suppose to happen.

Max knew what they had done, she knew it but she couldn't come right out and tell the police, they would never believe her and worse, some cop on the Prescott payroll would give them a heads up which would give them time to clean up any evidence if they hadn't already. Her mind was a whirlwind, working out how to make sure that everyone found out what Nathan and Jefferson had done, they couldn't get away with it, there was no way that Max could allow them to get away with it. She was starting to feel sweaty as it felt like she was falling into a dark tunnel, everything around her getting hazy as her breathing and heart rate picked up.

_Keep it together, breath, relax, keep it together, don't lose it in front of your mom, there is no way they will let you stay if you lose it in front of her. Deep breaths, Max, come on, deep breaths, you're ok, they haven't gotten away with anything, yet. Relax, get a grip, Mad Max, you're alright. Nothing has happened yet, you're alright, you're safe._ Max didn't know if she was talking herself down or what because the voice she heard, the voice telling her to calm down was Chloe, or at least Chloe's voice. And not the Chloe from yesterday but the Chloe she'd left on the cliff top, the one that admitted she loved Max.

"Honey, are you alright?" Vanessa jumped up and had been calling to Max, rubbing her forehead as soon as Max started breathing heavy and shaking.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry, just, ah, got really dizzy for a minute, my chest was shooting pains into my shoulder." Max lied easily, not wanting her mom to know that she had almost had another panic attack, or that Max was having panic attacks at all. At least she had been able to calm herself down before it was able to take hold, unlike last night.

Vanessa was almost sure Max was lying to her, it had looked as if Max was more afraid than in pain. "Are you sure? Do you need some more pain meds?"

"No, no, I'm ok now. I'm sure it was the initial shock of thinking Nathan could get away with this, it was just a scary thought, that's all, the thought of talking to the police and needing a lawyer, it's all a bit scary. I got a little dizzy and then yeah there was the pain but it's gone now." Better to show that she was a little afraid to throw her mom off how terrified the entire situation made her. They would never believe her that she could rewind time, ar at least could until her arm was paralyzed. That would only make her parents believe that Max had gone crazy from being shot, that it was weird some coping mechanism to help her deal or some other psycho mumbo jumbo. No, she couldn't tell her parents the entire truth about Nathan or Jefferson, not if she wanted to stay in Arcadia Bay with Chloe and to make sure they didn't get away with what they had done.

Vanessa eyed her daughter, but dropped the subject of what had happened but was determined to keep a much closer eye on Max.

"We can talk about this more later, after your father has found an attorney then we can talk to the police on our terms, not the Prescott's. We won't let them get away with this, Max, I promise you." Judging by the determination and fire in Vanessa's eyes, Max had no doubt her parents would do whatever it took to make sure Nathan was brought to justice. The Caulfields weren't as well off as the Prescotts but they weren't poor by any means. They had some powerful friends of their own that had been cultivated since the move to Seattle.

Max was more than happy to drop the subject for now as well. Besides, she had another pressing matter on her mind.

"Sure. Um, has Chloe been by today?" Max didn't want to look too eager but she couldn't completely cover the disappointment she felt at not seeing the other girl there. It wasn't as if Max expected her to be there every minute of the day but she was willing to admit the selfish side of her wanted the other girl there, where she could see her. It was still hard to believe that she had somehow been able to save Chloe and Arcadia Bay but she also was slowly starting to realize that things weren't just going to be tied up with a cute little bow on top. There was still a lot that Max had to figure out, the most pressing being Nathan and Jefferson.

"Joyce called a bit ago to check on you and to let us know she'd be by a little later with Chloe." Vanessa wanted to hear herself that Joyce was fine with Max staying there, plus she'd missed her old friend, they were long overdue for a bit of catching up.

Max nodded, picking up the remote for the TV in her room. Daytime TV was horrible, nothing but talk shows, court shows and kids shows but not even cool ones like she grew up on, now all the kids shows had to have some type of teaching moment or moral. What happened to cartoons about little girls with superpowers beating the crap out of an evil monkey or a clearly gay Satan? No moral or teachable moment beyond girls kick ass. Vanessa went back to reading her magazine. Max would have rathered had her phone to look online but wasn't sure it was a good idea to do research with her mother there, especially after the conversation they just had about Nathan.

Max was ready to give up on most of the human race after all the Baby Momma Drama on Maury because really, it was your fifth time on the show and that guy wasn't the father either, how was that even possible? The guy was strutting around the stage, pleased as could be, the douchebag. Meanwhile they showed a picture of this cute little toddler in the background. The girl was crying, why did people put themselves through this? Was the trip to New York worth the national humiliation? Maury was comforting the girl, telling her that he would help her find out who the father was. Of course he would, this was the stuff that drove ratings. If the remote wasn't attached to her bed, Max was sure she would have throw it at the TV when the guy started doing a dance like he'd just made a touchdown over a series of bleeps while he called the girl names.

She pressed the off button with a less satisfying click, it was hard to show outrage when the button was one of those soft touch type buttons.

"Hey, Maximo!" a cheerful voice called out as her door opened. For a split second her heart almost skipped a beat until it caught up with the sound of the voice, then it dropped slightly in disappointment, which Max felt kinda bad about. Warren, her friend from school, walked in. His floppy light brown hair hanging in his right eye as he carried in a few balloons and flowers, his backpack hung low off his back. "Special Delivery!"

Warren wasn't a bad guy, he was one of Max's friends but he was constantly trying to get out of the friend zone, regardless of how many times Max had politely rebuffed his advances. She didn't want to be harsh with him because he was a great guy, she just wasn't into him. It would be a shame to stop being friends with him because he couldn't take a hint.

"Hey, Warren, how's it going?" Max asked, at least talking to Warren was better than daytime TV.

"Good! Hello, Mrs. Caulfield." Warren greeted Max's mother when he saw her in the chair next to Max's bed.

Vanessa stood up, taking the flowers and balloons from Warren's hands, setting them on the small table on the other side of Max's bed, next to the other flower arrangements there from other friends and family. "Hello, Warren, it's nice to see you again."

"Thank you, it's nice to see you again. Especially now that Max is awake." Warren smiled warmly at Max. "I bought some of your homework, so you're not to far behind when you come back. I thought I could help you catch up."

"That's so thoughtful of you, isn't it, Max?" Vanessa beamed at Warren and then to Max's absolute horror, she winked at Max when Warren looked down to unzip his backpack. "And it was so nice of you to bring Max more flowers, they're gorgeous."

Max wanted a hole to open up and swallow her right than and there. Her mother could not seriously be thinking Warren was the reason she wanted to stay at Blackwell. It didn't help her case at all that Max was blushing, not because of Warren but because her mom had winked at her, like she was in on Max's secret when she couldn't have been further from the truth, it was all so embarrassing.

"Yeah, thanks, Warren." Max wasn't sure why she should be thanking Warren for bringing her homework, that wasn't the type of thing most people got excited about. Now chocolate was a different matter, if he had brought her some chocolate cake she'd be much more enthusiastic in her gratitude. Besides, it wasn't like she could write or anything, her couldn't even feel her right arm, let alone pick up a pencil and write.

"Well, I'll leave you two kids to talk, I need to find where my husband has wandered off to." Max prayed she wouldn't get another wink from her mom to go along with the knowing look she was sending Max's way. Thankfully, her mom left it at just the knowing look and slight smirk on her way out.

"So, how are you feeling, Maximilian?" Warren looked at her, his brown eyes shining with concern. Again, Warren was a nice guy and he would probably be a great boyfriend but there just wasn't a spark there for Max. Max didn't want to label herself but the truth was she'd never felt a spark, an overwhelming feeling of need for any boy. She had a boyfriend, Nick, back in Seattle for a few months but they mostly hung out and played video games. They'd gone to a couple school dances but they never went beyond some serious kissing. And it was nothing compared to the kiss Chloe and her had shared on the cliff.

"It could have been so much worse, you know?" Max replied evenly, only awake for a day and already so over being asked how she was feeling all the time. It wasn't Warren's fault he wasn't who Max had been waiting for.

_Stop being a crab ass, you're lucky you have people who care._ Max silently reprimanded herself and gave Warren a genuine smile.

"I'm alright, all things considered, there's a bit of pain but the drugs help." Even though she'd freaked out last night, the drugs really did help. It was more like an uncomfortable sensation more than a pulsing pain she had been feeling the night before.

"I bet!" Warren wiggled his eyebrows at Max. He sat in the chair Vanessa had occupied moments before stacking books on the table next to him. "Can I get some?"

"Please, Warren, you don't even drink, this stuff is too hardcore for you." Max laughed. Though remembering how he acted when he was drunk in the other timeline made her smile, he was a sappy drunk it seemed.

"Hardcore? I'll have you know I once almost made acid in the science lab." Puffing out his chest with pride, Warren gave Max his best badass look, which unfortunately, wasn't very badass, Max had seen more dangerous looks on kittens.

"How do you know it was acid?" Max asked, curious as to why her school's science lab had the chemicals needed to make strong psychedelics. Though it was Blackwell so it wasn't completely out of the realm of possibilities. Drugs were all over campus, Justin was a great example, Max couldn't think of one time where she'd seen Justin not high as a kite.

"Well, I mean, I don't know for sure but still I got high just off the fumes and I was seeing some weird patterns for a couple minutes." Warren pushed his hair out of his eyes as he laughed. It had been a very weird couple minutes there when it looked like the desk was melting.

"Oh, you're so hardcore!" Max teased.

"You know it! Speaking of hardcore, I don't have anything on you, Super Max!"

Max squirmed a bit with embarrassment, all she did was stand there and get shot, nothing truly heroic about that, especially if it hadn't worked and the storm would have still destroyed Arcadia Bay. Actually, it was pretty careless now that she thought about it.

"Seriously, I didn't do anything, literally, all I did was get shot."

"Bullshit, Max, the way I hear it you stopped Nathan from shooting that other girl. You're a hero, enjoy it!"

"Really, I don't feel like a hero, what was I supposed to do? Sit there and do nothing?" _Like I did the first time? Yeah, I'm so heroic, it only took half a dozen times and a storm about to flatten the town to finally get it right._

"He's lucky he's in jail, that's all I can say otherwise I would seriously hurt him." Warrens usually friendly eyes got dark for a moment as he scowled, punching his fist into his palm at the thought of what he'd love to do to Nathan Prescott. Max flashbacked to Warren beating Nathan up in the boy dorms, while he looked harmless, she knew for a fact Warren could hold his own against Nathan.

"Hopefully, that's where he stays." The thought of him somehow getting out was something Max didn't even want to contemplate. Seriously, he was literally caught with the smoking gun. How could anyone argue that?

"Daddy's money won't be able to get him out of this, Max, no way." Warren was confident that Nathan wasn't leaving jail anytime soon. From the very first day of school, Warren hadn't like Nathan. The guy had walked right into Warren's dorm room and grabbed the unopened Red Bull Warren had on his desk. When Warren tried to politely tell him that was his, Nathan laughed, called Warren a geek and walked out of the room, with his Red Bull, that was the entire exchange. Plus, Warren had heard some creepy stories from other people about Nathan, along with some of the noises coming out of his room it all added up to Nathan was a creep in Warren's opinion.

"Yeah, so what have I missed at school? Anything interesting happen while I've been gone?" Max wanted to change the subject, anything Nathan related was still touchy for her.

"You mean besides you? Not a lot can compare to that." Warren thought back on the last week, things had been a bit chaotic the first couple days but by Thursday things had settled down as much as they could with a few exceptions. There had been girls crying the halls, most of them he was pretty sure didn't even know Max so he wasn't sure what that was about. "Victoria is running around acting like she was somehow personally injured by everything because heaven forbid not everything is about Victoria Chase. Oh, they've suspended the Vortex Club, something about needing to look into the activities of the club due to Nathan being the president of it and, you know, because it's generally evil if you ask anyone not in it or who wants to be in it."

That brought a bit of relief to Max, it would be harder for Jefferson to find victims, at least she hoped so until she could figure out how to tip the police off about him. "How's Kate doing? She was really upset when I saw her before all of this happened."

"She's been really upset but more so about you than all that video crap that was going around. It's weird, like within hours of what happened to you, the website was taken down with the video along with the copies on youtube. No one has said another word about it as far I've heard. I guess you knocked her off the top of the Blackwell rumor mill."

Max was beyond relieved, Kate didn't deserve the bullying and torment she was getting, especially considering she'd been drugged. Kate was the sweetest person she knew and if it took her being shot a hundred more times, she would if it meant saving Kate's life. Max pushed the image of Kate on the rooftop from her mind. _It didn't happen, Kate didn't try to kill herself, at least not in this timeline_.

"I'm glad they're leaving it alone, Kate is too good of a person to go through that bullshit." Max wanted to tell Warren that Kate had been drugged but she wasn't sure how she could explain how she knew that. Not without bringing up dozens of more questions from the boy next to her. Warren was smart, crazy smart and not one to let go of something until his curiosity was satisfied.

"Yeah me, too. So, um your parents had mentioned that your right shoulder and arm were pretty messed up, how is it doing?" Warren rubbed the back of his neck, not sure if it was a touchy subject or not.

"I can't even feel it now, the doctors think the feeling will come back slowly, as the swelling goes down. Hopefully, in a week or so I'll be able to feel my hand. So sorry, Warren, but no epic Mortal Kombat sessions in the foreseeable future. Not until at least a few weeks of physical therapy they're saying."

"Oh, that's fine, I don't think my ego could handle another beatdown from you. You're deadly with with Katana." Warren wished he was joking but as it stood, he'd only beaten Max once and that was because she sneezed and needed to blow her nose. "But as luck would have it, I have a surprise that could come in very handy."

Max gave him a quizzical look, not sure what he was talking about or why he had such a self satisfied look on his face. "How so? Do tell, Mr. Graham."

"I got a new car, well new to me but I can take you to and from physical therapy, if you need me to."

"She's already got a ride to physical therapy and anywhere else she needs to go."

Max couldn't help the way her breath caught at the sound of Chloe's voice as the taller girl walked into the room, catching the tail end of the conversation. Chloe was wearing her ever present beanie over her bright blue hair, a buttoned up white shirt with short sleeves showing off her full arm tattoo. She was the poster child for a rebellious teenager, right down to her scuffed up combat boots. It had been less than a day but seeing the older girl helped ground Max, that Chloe was still really there, that she hadn't dreamed saving her.

"Hey, Chloe, I was wondering when you'd show up." Max couldn't wipe the smile off her face, though she made a mighty effort as she was positive she looked like an insane person.

"Yeah, my mom and I were just talking to your parents about you staying with us while you recuperate." Chloe said the last part pointedly looking at Warren. She'd seen him once before when Max was still unconscious. The way he was sucking up to the Caulfields got under her skin almost immediately and seeing him sitting there, leaning as close as he could to Max irritated her in a way she couldn't quite understand.

"Oh, Warren this is Chloe Price, a long time friend of mine." Max was sure if she should say best friend, not sure if that would set the other girl off. Chloe was her best friend but Max was pretty sure she wasn't Chloe's best friend at the moment, or even really a friend as far as Chloe was concerned.

"Yeah, we met a few days ago, how's it going, Chloe?" Warren asked keeping his voice friendly even though he was a bit annoyed to be interrupted and even more so after learning he most probably, definitely wouldn't be giving Max any rides, any time soon.

"Hey, Wally."

"Warren" he corrected though Chloe ignored him and kept talking as if he hadn't said a word.

"So, Mad Max, the 'rents have it all worked out. You'll be at our house at least for the next six weeks and then depending on how PT goes you can go back to your dorm, though no rush. And I promised Vanessa and Ryan I'd personally accompany you when you go to visit them next month." Chloe acted as if Warren wasn't there even though her words were for his benefit as much as Max's.

"Thanks, I really appreciate you helping me out like this." Max had been more than a little surprised when Chloe had offered to let her stay with her, pleasantly surprised but surprised nonetheless. She had almost convinced herself Chloe had changed her mind already. The fact that Joyce was there and talking to her parents about it, that they had a plan already made Max release the tension she wasn't even aware she'd been holding.

"Don't worry about it, it's the least I can do." Chloe was biting back any smart remarks she might have, well aware that despite ignoring him, Warren was listening to every word. "Oh, yeah I brought you this, I'm sure you're needing your fix."

Chloe set a box down on the tray in front of Max, opening it up to reveal a huge slice of double chocolate cake. "How'd you know I was just wishing for a slice of your mom's cake?" Max wanted to grab a fork and start eating it than and there but then thought better of it. She might have to share and she was not sharing a crumb of Joyce's famous double chocolate cake.

"Some things never change, Caulfield." Max saw something akin to fondness in Chloe's face but it was quickly replaced with the smirk that seemed to be Chloe's default facial expression these days.

Feeling awkward after being basically ignored by Max since Chloe had walked into the room, Warren decided he'd come back when Chloe wasn't there. The older girl made him uneasy. He knew who she was by reputation and none of it was good. He'd been surprised to learn that Max and her were friends when he came to visit Max the first time. He'd found Chloe sitting at Max's side, holding her hand looking at her like she could wake Max up by sheer will alone. She had refused to move when he'd walked in, not even acknowledging him that time either until Max's mom had introduced them. Then he had only gotten a grunt out of her before she dismissed him. He had stood around awkwardly that time as well, not sure how to ask if he could have a moment alone with Max. He didn't want to cry in front of a stranger. He never got the request out because when he took a few steps closer to Max, the blue haired girl had given him such a glare, he took three steps back and sat in the corner chair, talking to Max's parents.

"I should get back to school, I have a ton of homework but I could come back tomorrow to help you with yours, Max." Hope springs eternal and Warren was nothing if not hopeful.

Max looked like she was shocked to notice him still there, not the best thing for his ego. "Thanks for coming by, Warren and for bringing my homework, I'll text you tomorrow to see if I'm up for doing any homework."

"Ah, yeah, sure, sure, text me." Warren rubbed the back of his neck again, sure he was going to rub the skin right off if he stayed there any longer.

"You think you handle doing homework with the meds they have you on? You already looked completely stoned. Though, I guess it's good practice for when you're staying with me." Chloe said, only slightly teasing.

"Shut up, I'm not stoned, maybe pleasantly buzzed." Max laughed, already forgetting about homework. Maybe finding out that she would be staying with Chloe for the next 6 weeks might have had something to do with her giddiness, six weeks to rebuild their friendship, Max knew it was more than possible, Chloe had fallen in love with her in one the last time.

"Speaking of, I couldn't help but notice the size of that slice my mom sent you, care to share?"

"Yeah, right, you still have the rest of it at your house." To be fair, Chloe's mom did make ridiculously great cake, Max couldn't be faulted for not wanting to share it, even with Chloe.

"Yeah, right as if a double chocolate cake was going to last longer than an hour at my house with me and the step-shit around."

"So, you've already had some, probably a lot of some and now you want mine?" Max quirked an eyebrow at the blue haired girl, smirking. "Kinda greedy, doncha think?"

"Never claimed not to be." Chloe smirked right at Max and threw in a wink for good measure.

_Wait, wait, wait, are we… Is she flirting with me? Or just messing with me?_ Max wasn't sure what Chloe was doing but she really cursed how the little machine next to her showed her heart rate increased with that wink Chloe had sent her way. Way better than the one her mom had sent her earlier.

"Yeah, well I haven't had your mom's cake in five years, there is no way you're getting me to share any of this, Price." Immediately, Max knew she had said the wrong thing as the cocky smile disappeared from Chloe's face, replaced by a scowl.

"Not my fault you fell off the face of the Earth for five years, you could have had a ton of cake in that time." Silently, Chloe wanted to kick herself, things had been going well but of course she couldn't let it be ok, she had to make sure Max knew she was still hurt and upset.

"Look, Chloe, about that, I'm sorry, I suck, I know." Max knew they were going to have to have this conversation and even though she'd already had this conversation with Chloe in another timeline, it wasn't any easier. "I was going to call you when I came back but I felt so lame, like I didn't deserve to call you. I know that doesn't make sense but I wanted to call you as soon as I wasn't so, I don't know, lame?"

"OK, all of that was incredibly lame, Max. Five years, five years, Max and nothing, no calls, no letters, not even a christmas card! It was like you left and completely forgot about me, your so called best friend. You must have been living it up in Seattle, no time for your depressed best friend who had just lost her dad."

"It wasn't like that, Chloe, not even close." Max knew she was wrong, that she hadn't acted in the most mature way but it still pissed her off some that Chloe was so ready to believe that Max hadn't cared at all, that Chloe was so easily forgotten. "I was so depressed when we moved, like the thought of talking to you just made me hurt even more because it was like a part of me was ripped away. And I know the timing sucked but phones and email do work both ways."

"Ok, ok, you're right, I could have called you, too. I guess because it was such a bad time for me I kind of always assumed you'd be the more responsible one to make contact first and then when you never did…" Chloe trailed off not entirely sure where she was going with that thought.

"I get it, it was like, after too much time had passed, I felt embarrassed to call you, like what could I say? Sorry, I suck? Because, Chloe, I really do. I was so happy to see you, again. You have no idea."

"Well nothing makes you suck less than sharing chocolate cake." Chloe could only handle so much openness and honest at a time and she had already hit her limit for the day, the Max situation, as she like to call it, was too complicated. It brought up too many conflicting feelings, each fighting to be acknowledged which created a really bad passive aggressive response when it came to all things Max Caulfield.

"I'm not that sorry."

"Oh, still a smart ass, I see. Some things never really do change."

"I guess not."

"Though you do look like one of those Seattle Art Scene hipster kids."

"Say's the girl who could be on the cover of Hipsters Monthly."

"As if, maybe Rebel Punks Monthly but I don't drink PBR or shop at Whole Foods."

"Hey, they have great sushi there."

"Seriously, and I'm the hipster? Raw fish, no way, you couldn't pay me to eat sushi."

"For cereal, don't knock it til you tried it."

"Wow, there's a blast from 2008."

"Hipsters, we love to appropriate the classics."

"Speaking of classics, feel like sharing your cake now?"

"No, but I'll give you points for persistence."

"Boo, you're no fun. You do realize I could just grab it and there's nothing you could do right?"

"You do that and I'll yell for Joyce so fast, she'll never give you cake again."

"Yep, some things never change. Welcome Home, Max."

* * *

"How is that even possible?" Joyce Madsen asked, her face a mask of disbelief as she looked to Vanessa and Ryan again for confirmation that she had heard correctly.

"I don't have all the details but from what I've been told by my contact at the police station, they're looking to argue this as a self defense case at the hearing to get Nathan granted bail and possibly the charges dropped." Ryan explained to Joyce, he'd already explained this to his wife who was as upset as Joyce.

"Self defense? Have they seen Max? She couldn't hurt a fly let alone a boy as fit as Nathan Prescott, this is complete crap." The entire situation stunk worse than five day old fish in the middle of summer. There were certain truths about living in Arcadia Bay Joyce had come to terms with a long time ago. Fisherman would come into the diner telling tall tales only slightly worse than the way they smelled. Mrs. Linderman always won for best pie at the County Fair. The movie theater never showed new movies. And the Prescott used Arcadia Bay like their own personal fiefdom. But this, getting Nathan off after he almost killed Max, went beyond anything she had seen them do before.

"Listen, Joyce, if this goes the way my guy is saying, you need to get Chloe an attorney." The situation had gone beyond what Ryan had thought was possible. His friend at the police department had informed him that the Prescotts were pushing hard to get Chloe arrested for blackmail, extortion and harassment. They had also found out that Max and Chloe had been good friends growing up. Their private investigators had been working overtime since Nathan had been arrested. They hadn't even finished booking Nathan before three attorneys were at the station waiting to talk to their client that had prevented the police from getting anything out of the boy.

"We can't afford an attorney!" _How had things gotten so out of control so fast? What the hell had Chloe gotten them all involved in?_ Joyce was struggling to keep up with everything coming at her all at once.

"We hired one for Max a little bit ago, we can see if he can represent both girls. We'll help you, Joyce, we are not letting Prescott scum hurt our girls when their son is obviously unhinged." Vanessa was in full momma bear mode, no one was going to hurt her daughter or Chloe who she had always thought of as a second daughter.

A struggle raged in Joyce, her pride at not wanting to take what amounted to charity but not to take it would mean Chloe would be at the mercy of a public defender who wouldn't stand a chance against the Prescotts power. Being a resident of Arcadia Bay most of her adult life, Joyce knew that the girls needed any help they could get, the Prescotts owned most the police and the judges in the town.

"I appreciate that, Vanessa, Ryan, I really do. David and I will help out as much as we can."

"Don't worry about it, the only thing we need to worry about is making sure the Prescott's don't use our daughters to get their son out of this." There was steel in Ryan's voice, he would move heaven and earth to protect his daughter and by extension Chloe as well. "They're claiming they have text messages from Chloe threatening Nathan to get him to meet with her in the bathroom at Blackwell. I spoke with an attorney already from Portland who is going to come down and talk to us tomorrow. We'll learn more about what options we have and where we go from here."

"I'd like to say I was shocked that they would go to such extremes but I really can't, not after everything I've seen the Prescott's get away with over the years." Joyce shook her head, rubbing her temples, a migraine was coming on, she could feel it building up behind her eyes already. Never did she imagine that Chloe could actually do something that could get her in serious trouble beyond a bit of mischief. Was she really that out of touch with what was going on in her daughter's life?

"The main thing the attorney stressed was that neither girl is to talk to anyone about what happened in the bathroom or why they were there or anything without speaking to him first. Not even to us, he doesn't want them telling us anything, plausible deniability. If we don't know we can't testify about it or answer questions about it." Ryan placed a comforting hand on his wife's shoulder. He was seriously reconsidering letting Max in light of the new information but the attorney had advised him that it would look a lot worse if Max was to leave right now anyway.

"Testify? Why would we have to testify? Neither of those girls did anything wrong!" Joyce's southern accent was thick as her normally calm exterior started to crack.

"Hopefully, it won't come to that but to be on the safe side we need to let the girls talk to the attorney first and he'll be able to tell us what to do, how to proceed." Ryan was out of his depth trying to calm down two upset women, especially when it came to their respective children. But he was a patient guy if anything though he could have used a drink right about then.

"They can not think that Max and Chloe are some, some criminal masterminds!" Vanessa finally spoke up, waving her hands in frustration, "I mean, they hadn't even spoken in years until after Max woke up."

"Right now we have to remain calm, if the girls see us upset or worried, it's going to make them worried. We have to act as if everything is ok and let the attorney do his job. This guy is good and he's from Portland, so he doesn't have to answer to the Prescotts. He has no reason not to go after them full tilt." It wasn't going to be cheap but Ryan and Vanessa had already discussed it, they had enough saved up and Ryan was making good money at his job. They weren't going to allow the Prescotts to buy their way out of this, not without a fight.

"When will he be here?" Joyce was already shuffling her schedule around in her head.

"He's leaving first thing in the morning, so some time late morning. He said he'd give me a call when he gets in and can come here to the hospital to talk to the girls."

"OK, I'll make sure Chloe and I are here around 10am, that should be early enough." Joyce was already anticipating how she was going to explain this to David. He was a good man but he and Chloe had never gotten along. David had been warning her for the last couple years that Chloe was going to get herself into something she couldn't handle. That day had finally come.

"Sounds good, now let's all take a deep breath and act as if everything is fine." Ryan said as he turned towards Max's door.

Vanessa and Joyce each took a deep breath. Vanessa smoothed her hair down and tugged at the bottom of her shirt to ensure it was wrinkle free. To her being tidy was the same as being calm even though all she wanted to do was scream and take Max out of this awful town regardless of how many times Ryan had explained to her why they couldn't.

Joyce plastered on her waitress smile, an act she didn't even have to think about. Long ago she learned that diners didn't like sad waitress, she'd learned to smile regardless of what was going on in her life. On the inside she wanted to grab Chloe and shake her, ask her what the hell she had been doing, what the hell had she gotten into but outwardly she was the picture of a cheerful, southern belle.


	4. My Lawyer Could Beat Up Your Lawyer

_And I said, please put up your fists_  
_Put on a smile, and blow them a kiss_  
_'Cause darling you're nothing but brave_  
_And I know that you can be saved_

 Both the Caulfield’s and the Madsen/Price families crowded into Max’s hospital room the next morning. Chloe paced back and forth as much as the suddenly cramped space would allow, adjusting her beanie, then her hair. Walking back and forth in front of the window. Max felt like she was watching a tennis match, her eyes tracking every move the blue hair girl made. She could practically see the gears turning in Chloe’s head. David and Ryan murmured softly in the corner, a pinched, stressed out expression on David’s face was in stark contrast to Ryan’s calm, almost but not quite relaxed look. Vanessa sat in the chair next to Max’s bed, a place she had claimed from the first day Max had been brought there. Joyce stood next to her, both trying to make small talk with Max and each other. Both women sharing concerned glances between Max and Chloe.

 The air was tense and full of fake casualness, all the parents pretending every was fine, that this wasn’t a big deal. Both Max and Chloe knew it was a lot more seriously they had been lead to believe.

 The night before, Chloe had heard David shouting followed by harsh loud whispering which lead to even more shouting from David. She couldn't make it all out but what she had was enough to ring alarm bells in her head.

  **“I told you Chloe was going to cross a line one day!”**

**“How can we afford a lawyer?”**

**“She caused this mess, we should let her figure it out!”**

 Chloe wanted to hate him for that last one but she couldn’t because he was right, this was all her fault. It was her fault for getting Max shot, she’d brought a snarky attitude to a gunfight and Max paid the price.

  **“That’s just great, Joyce, now we have to worry about that little shit going free!”**

 That was the one that made her blood run cold, her mind race, her stomach churn. That was the one that was running through her mind all night and was still ringing in her ears as she paced back and forth in the hospital room.

 She couldn’t face Max, couldn’t look at the other girl, laying in her hospital bed, so small in that big bed, her right arm useless, a hole in her chest. One look and Chloe knew, she _knew_ , Max would know, would see the panic and guilt in Chloe’s eyes. Then Max would start with the bullshit absolutions, telling Chloe none of this was her fault, she was going to be fine. It didn’t matter how genuine Max meant every word or how earnest her voice sounded, how her eyes shined with nothing but love, even the prettiest of lies were still lies. Everything that was happening, that was about to happen, was all Chloe’s fault, she couldn’t handle Max lying to her. She definitely didn’t want Max’s forgiveness because, God, how fucked up would that be? Chloe still couldn’t forgive Max for leaving her, not completely, but Max was all too willing to let Chloe off the hook for almost getting her killed. And now, the fact that Chloe’s actions might get that fucking weasel Nathan off from almost...for shooting Max, no, unacceptable. Chloe knew she was an epic fuck up but never, in her wildest dreams, had she imagined she’s ever pull Max into her blast zone of bullshit. They hadn’t seen each other, let alone talked to each other in five fucking years. And yet Chloe’s penchant for ruining the lives of those closest to her had of course spilled over to the one person she thought would be the safest from her blast zone. Five Years! Of course, the Universe or whatever would have Max in that bathroom, at that moment, because the Universe or God or Buddha or The Flying Spaghetti Monster, whatever the fuck controlled these things never ran out of fun new ways to fuck with Chloe.

 “You’re making me dizzy.” Max finally couldn’t handle Chloe not looking at her, barely acknowledging her. Self-doubts was flooding Max, she was certain she would drown in it soon if Chloe kept avoiding her.

 “Chloe, dear, sit down.” It wasn’t a suggestion or even a request, Joyce pointed to the chair on the other side of Max’s bed.

 “I’ve got too much energy to sit.” Compromising, Chloe leaned up against the window, picking at her nails. “When is this dude gonna get here?”

 “He should be here any minute. Relax.” Joyce once again commanded, though pointlessly, Chloe was never one to listen to demands even in the best of times.

 David opened his mouth, like he wanted to say something, but closed it, settling on shooting Chloe a warning look not that she noticed, she was too busy pretending to find her cuticles fascinating.

 “Do you want something to drink, sweetie?” Vanessa asked Max, picking up the water pitcher and a plastic cup. She’d stopped forcing drinks on Max but she still asked her every ten minutes if she wanted a drink, or something to eat, or a magazine to read. Unfortunately, Vanessa couldn’t give her daughter what she really wanted and that was for Chloe to just _look_ at her.

 “I’m fine, thanks.” Max mumbled, as she watched Chloe moved from staring at her fingernails to reading the cards on Max’s flowers, snorting and rolling her eyes when she got to Warren’s card. Max still hadn’t even read it, it had completely slipped her mind. She felt a bit guilty about that.

 There was a knock on the door, then an older man with salt and pepper hair with short cropped curls, walked into the room carrying a briefcase. He was dressed impeccably in a dark, gray, three piece suit, a yellow tie disappeared under his buttoned suit jacket. Despite his graying hair, he had a youthful look about him but also an air of professionalism around him that commanded your attention.

  _'Now there is a man who understand the importance of a good facial and skin regiment._ ’ Vanessa thought, standing up to greet the man who must be their attorney.

 “Hello, everyone, I’m Sebastian Sendal.”

 “Hello, Mr. Sendal, I’m Ryan Caulfield, this is my wife, Vanessa, our daughter, Max.” Ryan shook Mr. Sendal’s hand and started making the introductions pointing each person out. “That’s David and Joyce Madsen, their daughter, Chloe.”

 Sebastian made the rounds, shaking each parent’s hand and sending a friendly smile of perfect, straight, white teeth at each girl.  After the pleasantries were exchanged, Sebastian set his briefcase down on the side table and opened it up, pulling out a couple folders, one already looking impressively full.

 “Ok, I need each of you to sign these papers before we say anything case related, that way you are all covered under client, attorney privilege, meaning anything you say stays between us. A bit of legal junk to get out of the way in case any of you confess to shooting Kennedy or liking Nickelback, your secrets are safe with me.” Sebastian took off his suit jacket, carelessly tossing it on the back of a chair.  He unbuttoned his shirt sleeves and rolled them up to the top of his forearms, to reveal muscular, tattooed covered arms that stopped just above his wrists.

 Max immediately felt at ease, he wasn’t what she was expecting at all. He was incredibly friendly and likable already. He had a nice even speaking tone that sounded like one of those radio talk show hosts but not the crazy ones that were screaming about alien conspiracies at 3am. From the corner of her eye she saw Chloe visibly relax too. His tattoos and casual manner seemed to have the opposite effect on David as he stared at the attorney with narrowed eyes.

 He passed a form out to each person, stopping when he got to Max. “Ok, Max, I know you can’t sign your signature like you normally would but if you could try your best with your left hand, that’ll work.”

 Max signed the paper left-handed, it was pretty messy, resembling more of a toddler’s attempt at writing their name than an educated 18 year old. After everyone had signed their paper and handed them back to the attorney, he placed them in a folder in his briefcase. “Great, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to business.”

 Chloe took a few steps closer to where she was almost touching Max’s bed, the closest she’d been to the younger girl since she’d walked into the room. She made every effort to avoid eye contact with Max but still needed to be close to her. This moment was something big, she knew it was there was a lot was riding on this guy’s shoulders, hell, her future very well could be in his hands along with Max’s.

 “First, I’m going to go over what we know so far then I’ll speak with the girls, first individually and then together. It’s crucial that you tell me everything you know, don’t hold back, and don’t lie. I’m not here to judge you, that’s not my job or my place. Then I’ll talk with the parents, don’t be upset when I don’t tell you what the girls said. The less you know, the less you have to answer when it comes to questioning because believe me, there will be more questioning. You weren’t kidding, Ryan, those Prescott's are bastards. My private investigator started looking into them right after we got off the phone and we already have two files worth of crap and we’ve barely begun.” Sebastian nodded towards Ryan. The attorney was relaxed but clearly all business for the moment. Picturing him in a courtroom was easy, he had the manner and presence that demanded you pay attention to him.

 “Wait a minute, you mean you’re not going to tell us what the girls tell you? How can we protect them if we don’t know everything?” David asked incredulously. Chloe knew Joyce had told him that already last night because she’d sat at the top of the stairs after the shouting started and caught that part of the conversation. Besides, she doubted David wanted to know so he could protect them. He probably wanted to put it all in one of his creepy little files Chloe had seen in the garage.

 “I do mean that. I know, it’s hard as a parent,” Chloe couldn’t help snorting a bit in disbelief at hearing that. Sebastian glanced over at her, did some quick calculation in his head, sizing up the situation between the blue haired girl and her step father instantly. “You want to protect your child, but it’s my job to legally protect them. That includes from one of you accidentally saying something that appears completely harmless at the time but to the sharks that the Prescotts have hired, it would be like blood in the water. As of right now, Max and Chloe are my priority.”

 David grumbled a bit under his breath but backed down. This guy was impressing Chloe more and more as he went on. It wasn’t often David backed down, usually the only person who had that effect on him was his wife.

 “Now, as I was saying, the Prescott’s have hired some of the best defense attorney’s in the state, pretty nasty bunch that have no qualms tossing a couple innocent girls under the bus if it means getting their client off. But they didn’t hire the best, you did. If there is one thing I cannot stand in this world it’s a bully and the Prescott’s are nothing but bullies.” Sebastian’s green eyes grew hard, giving his face a dangerous look to it. “And I will not allow them to drag either Chloe or Max’s names through the mud or create trumped up charges against these girls.”  

 This guy was a complete badass, of that Chloe had no doubt. Who knew that there would be an adult besides her mom and Max’s parents that Chloe would honestly respect.

 “I don’t understand though, how can you do anything against the Prescotts attorney’s? The district attorney is going to try the case against Nathan, not you.” Joyce asked, feeling out of her depth.

 “You are correct, Mrs. Madsen, I won’t be arguing in the criminal case against Nathan, I’m here to make sure that there is no criminal case filed against the girls and to handle the civil case, if it comes to that, against the Prescott’s for what happened to Max and to Chloe. That being said, we all know that the Prescott’s basically own the entire legal system in this town from the cops to the judges. They aren’t the only ones who have some pull and my friends have a lot more pull than small town politics.”

 “If that’s true, then how can you have any say in what happens to the girls or to this case for that matter?”

 ' _And David comes up to bat again_.’ Chloe thought bitterly.

 “Mr. Madsen, I understand your concerns, but trust me when I say, there are bigger fish than the local justice system at play here. What Nathan did, bringing a gun to school, private or not, that is not a local case, which is a federal crime. He injured a fellow student with that gun, which is also a federal crime. The local judicial system has no say in this case anymore. It’s a federal case, where the Prescotts have significantly less pull. Anything they could try to pull out their asses to discredit the girls, or to try and get them arrested, as far as I know at this time, there is nothing that would go beyond the state level and therefore would be handled here. I am here to make sure it doesn’t come to that. Also, when Nathan goes to trial, we need to make sure the girls are well aware of the types of things they will be asked so there will be no surprises on the stand.” While not being condescending towards David, it did walk the line but yet again, David simply dropped it.

 “And a swing and a miss.” Chloe mumbled, low enough that only Max heard her. Max glanced at Chloe, wishing she could reach out and take her hand, something to get her attention, to make sure she was alright, but of course Chloe was on her right side. _Stupid, worthless arm, you could bend time and space to save Chloe but now you can’t even reach out to touch her._

 “Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to speak to the girls. Afterwards, I’ll talk with each of you and then we can all meet up again and I’ll tell you what I think our next move should be. Sound good?”

 “The hospital said we could use the family room down the hall for a few hours. I can show you.” Ryan said as he walked towards the door. Out of all the parents, Ryan was the one who was by far the calmest. It wasn’t because he wasn’t concerned but he’d learned early in life that stressing out and worrying about things you couldn’t control didn’t do any good.

 “Great, Chloe why don’t you come with me.” Sebastian snapped his briefcase closed, it was a beautiful dark brown leather with silver fasteners and corners and it more than likely cost more than Chloe had paid for her truck.

 Acting much more nonchalant than she felt Chloe followed their attorney and Max’s father to the door. Before she left the room, she finally turned around and shot Max a smile.

 “I’ll be back.” she said in a really bad Terminator voice. Maxed smile for the the first time that day, filled with relief but also concern as she noticed the hesitation and fear in Chloe’s blue eyes.

 

* * *

 

The hospital family room was set up more for comfort than an interview, lowlights, muted colors, puffy chairs and long sofas with a few side tables. There was a small dorm sized fridge in the corner with a coffee machine on top of it with cups, cream and sugar along with some tea packets. Fake flowers sat in white vases on various small side tables. It was the most generic, non offensive room Chloe had seen, so non offensive that Chloe almost found it offensive for it’s lack of anything remotely interesting.

 Sebastian grabbed one of the end tables and placed it in front of one of the puffy chairs. He set his briefcase down on it then grabbed another chair and set it across from his then gestured for Chloe to sit down.

 Chloe’s mouth felt incredibly dry, she took a deep breath to steady her nerves, even the air felt like it was thick and hard to swallow. She didn’t want to admit she was afraid but she wouldn’t say that she was not afraid either. This was big time trouble, she knew that even before she heard her Mom and David arguing the night before. This was the kind of trouble where someone who probably made more in an hour then her Mom and David made in a week was required. She didn’t even want to begin to think about where the money was coming from. She knew her family didn’t have it so it had to be the Caulfield’s, which made her feel like a bigger loser than she already thought she was.

 “OK, Chloe, no need to be worried, whatever you say is between us. Do you want some water?” Sebastian grabbed a couple bottles of water from the tiny fridge that was in the corner before sitting down in the chair across from the younger woman. Not waiting for a reply he handed her one of the bottles. “The only rule here is do not lie to me. If you do, I will find out and then you and I will have a problem because I can not help you or Max if you lie to me, do you understand?” He took an educated guess that Chloe would want to keep Max safe more than herself.

 Chloe nodded her head, taking a drink from her water. It was hard to calm down when she knew she was going to have to tell him everything. That she was hella responsible for Max getting shot even if she didn’t pull the trigger herself. Her stomach was churning, she felt like she was going to be sick.

 “I’m not going to play coy little games with you like the cops will. They will let you have just enough rope to hang yourself. To make the best use of our time, I need you to tell me everything, the good, the bad and the ugly because I am pretty certain I already have a good idea of what was going on between you and Nathan.” A few notes were scribbled on his note pad.

 Chloe took another deep breath and cleared her throat. The back of her neck was feeling a little sweaty, and she couldn’t stop bouncing her left leg up and down. She crossed her arms as if to protect herself from what she was about to tell the attorney sitting across from her. For once her hard, jaded mask was lost leaving an incredibly frightened and scared teenager in it’s place.

 Sebastian gave her a reassuring smile, placing a small digital recorder on the table between them. “OK, I’m going to record our interview so I can refer to it later. Let’s start with the most obvious question, why were you in the bathroom at Blackwell, a school you had been kicked out of a year before?”

 Chloe rubbed her nose and looked all around the room, staring at one of those generic painting that hospitals and hotel rooms had in common, it was a field with yellow flowers, a few white clouds in the sky. “Ah, I had asked him to meet there… because, uh, I needed money and uh, something happened between us that I knew he wouldn’t want anyone to know about.”

 “OK, why don’t we start at the beginning, tell me your version of what happened, what lead up to you and Nathan meeting in the bathroom?”

 Chloe grimaced, this guy wasn’t holding back or easing in but might as well get it all out and see where the chips fell.

 “First, let me explain about my friend, Rachel Amber. She’s been missing for 6 months and I’ve heard rumors that Nathan might know where she was or know something. A few weeks ago I was in a bar and Nathan was there, throwing money around, getting loaded. I thought it might be a good time to pump him for some info, because he was looking pretty wasted already.” Chloe thought there was no need to tell him how she wanted to rob Nathan all things considered and since the night definitely took a turn for the fucked up it was a moot point.

 “So, ah, I started talking to him and he was buying me drinks and we were just talking, I mentioned Rachel a few times but he kept changing the subject. I, I don’t know, I felt like he wasn’t telling me something, that there was something just off the way he kept dodging the issue.” Grabbing her water bottle, Chloe took a huge gulp. Maybe skipping the wake and bake this morning was a bad idea because she really could have used something to calm the beating of her heart right about now. “So it was closing time and Nathan was acting pretty smashed, I thought that maybe I could get him to talk about Rachel, if I was able to catch him wasted maybe he would slip, say something, maybe he knew where she was, maybe he helped her leave town or something, Nathan had a thing for Rachel. Hell, almost everyone had a thing for Rachel.”

 “Let me just stop you for a moment so I know I have this right so far, ok?” Sebastian looked down at the notes he’d been taking while Chloe was talking. “You thought that Nathan might have some information about your friend, Rachel Amber, who has been missing for 6 months. You saw him in a bar a couple weeks ago, drinking and started talking to him. He then started buying you drinks and when you would ask him about your friend, Rachel Amber, he would change the subject, is that correct?”

 “Yeah, like he would get all, I don’t know, it was weird, man, he would get sad for a second and then say, ‘We need another shot’ or he’d point someone out in the bar and be like ‘Look at that sad sack, he doesn’t stand a chance with that broad he’s chatting up.’, the entire situation felt sketchy.” Flashes from that night came at Chloe with a new clarity she hadn’t experienced since it had happened.

 “And what bar where you two at, do you remember the name?”

 “Yeah, it’s biggest dive bar around, the one right off the highway, Captain Jim’s. They serve anyone.”

 “Why were you there, at the bar that night?” It wasn’t an unfair question and one Sebastian knew the cops would ask. Every question he was asking were ones the cops would ask in one way or another so he needed to see how Chloe would answer them with him first, to find any holes or inconsistencies to make sure they had an answer for everything and leave no room for the cops or the Prescott lawyers to make up their own answers.

 “I was having a shitty day, my step-dad and I got into an argument about me getting a job. I had been putting up missing posters all over town again for Rachel and I was really missing her. I wanted to blow off some steam, the bar seemed like as good a place as any at the time.”

  _“You can’t keep wasting your life, Chloe! How long do you expect your mother and I to support you? You’re not in school, you’re not working, what the hell are you doing with yourself? You’re wasting your life away and you don’t even give a damn!” David yelled at Chloe, it was a conversation they’d had many times in the past few months. It was a conversation Chloe was so over having. She had just spent the last four hours putting up missing posters for Rachel. She was missing her friend more than usual that day, the daily physical ache she felt in her heart was like sharp pains. The feeling of missing Rachel was more intense than it had been in weeks. There was a desperation as the days kept adding up that something very bad had happened to her friend, it was getting to the point where it was hard to deny it anymore._

 “So you didn’t know Nathan Prescott would be there, you didn’t go there specifically to seek him out?”

 The question threw Chloe off, why would she have been looking for Nathan? “No, I didn’t know he would be there. It wasn’t as if I had ever sought Nathan out. We’d had maybe three or four conversations in my life before that night and it was always when Rachel was with me. He would come up and talk to Rachel when we were together or Rachel would see him and stop and talk to him when we were together but we never, like, hung out or anything. We run in completely different crowds, the only person we had in common was Rachel.”

  _Nathan was sitting at the bar, as if he owned the place, whiskey in one hand while raising a shot glass up in the other, shouting to the bartender to get the dozen or so other people there another round. He gave Chloe a smirk when she sat down next to him on the wooden barstool, as if he had been expecting her to come over. He told the bartender to get her whatever she wanted so she ordered a Jack and coke. Nathan made a comment about not seeing her around lately, she mentioned how she’d be expelled. They talked about how much Blackwell sucked. Nathan had been alternating between being funny and bitterly sarcastic. There was some country crap playing on the jukebox and the air smelled of stale beer and cigarette smoke. A couple older guys were playing pool, one of them holding up the game as he tried to flirt with a woman sitting at the bar by herself, watching them play._  

 “OK, so you saw him at the bar, you drank together, you talked, what happened next?” Having talked to hundreds of clients by this point in his career, Sebastian usually had a pretty good feel for a situation and he already knew where this was headed but he needed Chloe to tell him all the same, the police and the Prescott attorney’s would certainly grill Chloe on this, make it seem like she was setting him up from the very beginning to try and extort money from him. Sebastian had to be certain that that wasn’t the case. He’d heard about the texts that they had from Prescott’s phone sent from Chloe’s phone. He was confident he could get around them as they seemed to be all they had presently against Chloe.  

 “Um, so, yeah he was pretty wasted, I told him he probably shouldn’t drive, then he said I probably shouldn’t be driving either. I hadn’t had nearly as much as he had though so I offered to drive him home, I thought maybe he would open up, say something if it was just the two of us.” _Don’t you dare fucking cry, Price._ Chloe’s leg kept bouncing up and down, she crossed her arms tighter across her chest, hugging herself to keep all her emotions from spilling out and onto the expensive, leather shoes in front of her. “He, uh, made some crack about my truck, I can’t remember what exactly but it was more like, like a friendly joke, not like a sarcastic kind of joke. Anyways, I drove him home, we didn’t really talk about anything. He was flipping through the radio, talking about how it was hard to get any decent stations out here and how I really needed to get satellite radio. He was being really friendly, like not at all how he’d been before when I’d seen him, he seemed kind of sad, actually, he seemed really lonely, thinking back now.”

  _Nathan sat in the passenger seat of Chloe’s truck looking as out of place as a steak at a vegan potluck. He kept messing with the radio dial, not staying on any one thing longer than a few seconds._

  _"Ugh, what’s with all this country music? It’s like we’re living down south. If it’s not country, it’s whiny, indie, folk crap. The stuff sad hipster listen too. You need to get yourself satellite radio, thousands of channels so there’s always something good on. You got any decent CD’s in this death trap?”_

  _"Dude, stop fucking with the radio, I’m trying to concentrate and you’re hella distracting me here. I don’t want to get pulled over.”_

  _“Fuck that, if you got pulled over with me in the car they’d give us a police escort, my family owns this shit hole town and all the cops in it, relax, Price.” Nathan had howled laughing at the idea of getting into any trouble._

 Chloe stopped unable to avoid the next part of the night any longer, Sebastian sat back, letting her take her time, holding off his questions for now, he knew this was going to be hard for her to get out if his suspicions were correct, which they almost always were.  

 “So we got to Blackwell and he went to open the door and kind of slipped, fell, he didn’t hit the ground but he was holding onto the door like it was a life raft. I offered to help him to his room, I mean, we weren't friends but I thought if we could at least get on friendly terms he would, I don’t know, let his guard down a bit, open up a bit, tell me anything I could use to find Rachel.”

  _Nathan opened the truck door and went to step out, immediately grabbing the door as he almost fell out of the truck, laughing. “Oh damn, I almost bit it, I guess I’m more fucked up than I realized.”_

  _Chloe ran around to his side to help. He unwrapped his arms from the truck door and threw an arm around the blue haired girl’s shoulders. Either he was a lot heavier than he looked or she was a bit more drunk than she thought because she almost fell down when he rested his weight against her. This only caused him to laugh even harder._

  _“Ugh, dude, you gotta put yourself on a diet, you weigh a ton.” Chloe groaned as she tried to help him up the stairs to his dorm. He reeked of whiskey and sweat, not the best combinations, especially when he kept laughing, his hot breath in her face smelled sour and bitter. His hand “accidentally” grabbed her breast when he stumbled. She wanted to just dump him on the doorstep of his dorm and be done with it but he was flashing a lot of cash and she could really use it, a lot more than his rich boy ass needed it._

“When we got to his dorm, he couldn’t get the key in the door, he dropped his keys like two or three times, so I ended up grabbing them and unlocking his door, helping him in. It was weird, afterwards, when I was thinking about it, like he was fine to walk out of the bar but was acting a lot more drunk when we got to Blackwell. I didn’t think anything of it at the time but, yeah, maybe I should have been more alert or suspicious or something. I was looking around his room because how often does someone like me get to see a rich kids room, you know? He had this projector up and I was looking at this weird black and white film that was playing, it was kind of creepy.”

  _He kept laughing loudly as she half walked him, half dragged him up the steps to his floor._

_“Last on the left...Oh, man, people would freak out if they knew I brought Chloe Price back to my room!” Chloe wasn’t sure if she should be offended or what. She was sure if she had any friends left, they’d be hella freaked that she was helping Nathan to his dorm room too._

  _“Please, little boy, you couldn’t handle this, I’m too hardcore for you.” Chloe decided to use a bit of sarcasm, not sure how it would play with an inebriated Nathan. That only made him laugh even harder. He wasn’t being a complete asshole, in fact he seemed to be taking it pretty well, able to take it as well as he dished it._

  _“Ha, yeah, yeah, you wish, Price.” They had stopped in front of Nathan’s dorm room as he dug out his keys, dropping them on the floor. He put one hand against the wall to steady himself as he bent down to pick them up, trying to fit the right key in the lock, failing and almost falling over as he leaned a bit too far to the left._

  _“Yeah, you got me, I totally dream about you, Prescott.” Chloe rolled her eyes as she caught him from completely doing a faceplant on the floor. He somehow grabbed his keys without falling and tried again, almost dropping them again before Chloe reached over and grabbed them, unlocking the door._

  _Chloe walked in, helping Nathan to his bed. She looked around, there was a projector with some weird film playing, no sound, it was all these weird images. It looked like a pagan ritual with a guy wearing a goat head, holding a knife with a lamb lying on a slab in front of the guy, surrounded by candles. With a shudder she looked at the rest of his room, littered with expensive camera gear, a high end computer, the room oozed of money._

 “He offered me some water, to ‘help sober me up’ he said for the ride home. I took a drink of it and then I started feeling really dizzy, like immediately, it was so weird, everything felt far away, and then the next thing I knew….”

  _“Here, have some water before you head home, sober you up some. The cops won’t let **you** off if they catch you driving.” Nathan leaned over and grabbed a bottle of water out of a small mini fridge that was next to his bed then tossed it to Chloe who caught it. _

  _“Ah, thanks.” She was mildly touched by the kind gesture, Nathan wasn’t known for being a nice guy. She pulled the cap off and took a huge gulp. She blinked a few times, the water tasted a bit off, it had a weird aftertaste. She barely had time to register that thought before things started getting really foggy, the room was spinning, her head felt like it was made of lead, everything was really slow and getting darker._

  _“The fuck…...you dosed me?” Was the last conscious thought Chloe had, not even sure if she actually said it or only thought it. Everything went black as she felt herself falling._

 “Ah, he must have put something in the water, because the next thing I remember was coming to, like falling into consciousness, it wasn’t like waking up from sleeping. He was like yelling at me, and crawling towards me, with a camera. I still felt out of it and dizzy, I was on his floor.” Chloe went to take another drink of water but then grimaced at the bottle, setting it off to the side, out of her sight.

  _“You stupid bitch, stop moving.” Nathan yelled, it was more like a harsh whisper but it sounded like a yell in the quiet of the dorm._

  _Everything felt heavy and impossibly slow, like someone had turned Chloe’s reflexes down to 25% speed. It was hard to concentrate, her eyes felt fuzzy, out of focus. She felt the carpet under her and realized she was on the floor, slowly her eyes started to focus again. Blinking her eyes, she saw Nathan, crawling towards her, on his knees holding his expensive fucking camera up as he was taking pictures of her._

  _“Oh, that’s a great shot, you look so confused, so helpless.” Nathan cooed, like a proud parent whose baby smiled for the first time. It turned Chloe’s stomach._

 “He was taking pictures of me. I kicked out to get him off me, he crashed into his side table and broke the lamp. I got a hit of adrenaline and got up, pushed past him and got the hell out of there. I ran all the way to my truck and drove home. I didn’t stop until I was in my room at home.” Chloe swallowed the lump in her throat, pushed back the tears that threatened to fall. She was not going to cry, she was not going to breakdown. NAthan Prescott did not deserve one more tear. She had brought it all on herself. She had went there to steal from Nathan and in the cosmic joke that was her life, he had ended up stealing something from her instead.

  _As he advanced closer, Chloe shot her foot out, an attempt to kick Nathan in the nuts. She missed and ended up kicking him in the stomach, knocking him into the lamp on his side table. The lamp crashed to the floor, breaking. Nathan dropped his camera._

  _“Look what you did, you fucking bitch.”_

  _The needed adrenaline finally kicked in, with strength and energy she didn’t know she possessed, Chloe jumped up, pushed past Nathan and out his door. Chloe ran down the hall and out the door not stopping until she was in her truck and had thrown it in reverse, tires squealing as she peeled out of the Blackwell parking lot. It was only when she was almost home that she, thankfully, realized she was still fully clothed._

 “I know this is hard, Chloe, but I need to ask you some more questions because the police are going to ask you the same things. Did you have your clothes on when you woke up? Do you know if there was any sexual contact?”

 “I still had all my clothes on, so I don’t think there was any um, I don’t think he, um, you know sexually assaulted me. I had a few bruises on my arms, like he had lifted me or moved me or something.” It was hard to talk about but not as embarrassing as she thought it would be to tell a stranger what had happened. It was actually a relief, mostly because Sebastian wasn’t giving her any looks of pity or anything, he was friendly but a bit clinical about it, of which she was incredibly grateful for. There was no way she could handle anyone giving her pity or fake platitudes of understanding.

  _She stripped her clothes off, throwing them in the furthest corner of her room. She had never felt so dirty, so unclean in her entire life. She got into the shower, the water as hot as she could bare and scrubbed her skin until it was red and raw, she still didn’t feel clean. She didn’t know when she had started crying, in the hall of the boys dorm, in her truck, in her room, in the shower, she didn’t know. She ended up curling up in her bathtub, holding her knees to her chest, crying like she hadn’t in years, as the water from the shower continued to fall on her, like everything else, her argument with David, missing Rachel, being kicked out of school, arguing with her mom, missing her father, being drugged by Nathan, possibly almost raped, it was too much. It was all crashing on her like the hot water._

_‘I’m so fucking stupid, what the hell did I think was going to happen? He’d pass out and I could just rob him? Seriously, how did my life get so fucked up that I thought that was a good plan, that I thought of it at all? When did I become that person? What the fuck is my problem? No wonder everyone leaves me, who would want to be around a fucking disaster like me. Dad. Max. Rachel. It’s only a matter of time before Mom kicks my sorry ass out.’_

 “Did you tell anyone what had happened? Your mom, a friend, Max, anyone?”

 “No, there wasn’t anyone to tell. I mean, my best friend, Rachel, has been missing for months, I hadn’t seen or talked to Max in five years. I didn’t even know she was back in Arcadia Bay until I saw her, until I saw her in the bathroom, when Nathan.... I don’t really have friends, just a few people I know but none I’d call an actual friend. Things are kind of strained between my mom and I, there was no way I could tell her what happened. And the step do… David... was out of the question, we don’t talk about anything. There wasn’t anyone to tell. You already know the cops wouldn’t have done anything about it. It would have been his word against mine and no proof beyond the pictures he took, which who knows if he still has them.”

  _Chloe sat in her tub, letting the water run over her, washing away her tears but it couldn’t touch how dirty she felt herself, in her very core. She sat there until the water got too cold and she didn't know if she was shivering more from her emotional state or the temperature of the water, having used up all the hot water a while ago. On shaky legs, she got out, wrapping herself up in her mom’s robe, smelling her mom’s perfume and cooking grease on it, needing the comfort it gave her because she couldn't wake her mom up to hold her, to tell her everything would be alright. Chloe knew it would never be alright because she wasn’t alright, she was a curse, a fucking menace to anyone who came in contact with her, everything she touched turned to shit._

  _She crawled into bed, pulling Joyce’s robe tight around her, a poor substitute for an actual hug from her mom and fell into a fitful sleep._

 “Alright, you didn’t tell anyone. Now, about Max, you said you haven’t seen or talked to her in five years before that day in the bathroom?” Sebastian continued when Chloed nodded. “Ok, we’ll come back to that but first, how did you end up in the bathroom with Nathan, after everything that had happened?” Sebastian made some more notes. He had hoped he was wrong but some type of assault had happened, unfortunately it was to long past to get any type of evidence from Chloe but maybe Nathan had been stupid enough to keep those photos. He seemed the type not to get rid of little mementos and Sebastian would bet his Law Degree this wasn’t the first time Nathan had done something like this.

 “Um, I was pissed, like I knew the cops wouldn’t believe me, I’m poor white trash and compared to the Prescott’s golden boy, they wouldn’t have done anything. The more I thought about it, the more pissed off I got because it was like this bastard was going to get away with it and it wasn’t fair. I wasn’t planning on hurting him or anything like that. I figured if the cops wouldn’t do anything than maybe I could get him to pay me to not tell anyone, like his parents. I wanted him to feel violated like I did.” Chloe let out a shaky breath, twisting and pulling at the beanie on her head.

  _The next day Chloe didn’t leave the house, only leaving her room a few times to use the bathroom and grab something to drink. Most of the day was spent in bed, feeling like she’d been hit by a truck, she ached all over, her shoulders and back being the worst. Her emotions kept flipping between disgust with herself and a boiling rage at what Nathan had done to her._

  _‘I can’t let him get away with this that fucking weasel, I’m going to fucking kill him. I’ll take a bat and bash his fucking face in and his fucking camera, the creepy fucker.’_

  _On the third day of Chloe barely leaving her room, Joyce hesitantly knocked on Chloe’s door._

  _“Sweetie, are you alright?” Joyce asked, her voice muffled through the door._

  _“Ah, yeah, Mom, I haven’t been feeling well, I must have caught a bug or something.”_

  _Joyce opened the bedroom door, her face etched in concern at the state Chloe was in. The room was dark and smelled of stale cigarette smoke, “What’s wrong, Chlo? Do you want me to make you some soup or anything?”_

  _Chloe was huddled under her covers, her face was pale, she had dark circles under her eyes like she hadn’t slept in days. She pulled back as her mom tried to feel her forehead to see if her daughter had a fever. “No, I’m better now, I just want to sleep.”_

  _Lying to her mom wasn’t a big deal for Chloe, she’d been doing it for years, it was second nature to her.  She was upset that her mom hadn’t been there to comfort her even though Joyce didn’t know that Chloe needed it, so Joyce attempts now felt too little too late. It was completely unfair, it wasn’t as if Chloe had told her mom what had happened with Nathan but weren’t mom’s suppose to have like maternal instincts or some shit to know when their kids needed them?_

  _“I could make you some tea?” Joyce hovered over Chloe torn between leaving Chloe alone like she wanted and making sure her stubborn daughter was alright._

  _“No, Mom, I just want to sleep.” Chloe snapped at Joyce, immediately realizing she was being an ass but unable to help herself. She didn’t want Joyce’s concern now, she didn’t feel as if she deserved it, she’s brought this all on herself._

  _"Alright.” Joyce walked towards the door, casting one more concern look at the girl in the bed. Chloe rolled over to face her wall, turning her back on her mom, on everything._

 “You wanted him to feel violated, I understand that but you need to tell me everything you did and said to him. This is important because this is basically their entire case against you, why they’re pushing so hard for you to be arrested. I don’t have to tell you that if they are able to get enough evidence to arrest you for threatening Nathan then that will only make his case for self defense that much stronger.” Sebastian laid it all out for the scared girl, he wasn’t being harsh, simply stating the facts so she would realize how important it was she told him everything.

 “I was pretty shaken up for the first few days, I felt sick and disgusted with myself for being so stupid. But after about a week I stopped laying in bed and decided I wasn’t going to let him get away with what he did. So I sent him a text, told him if he didn’t want me to spread all his secrets then he’d better find a few thousand reasons to keep me quiet.”

 “You didn’t threaten to hurt him physically or make any death threats or hint at them?”

 Chloe pulled out her cellphone, pushed a few times on the screen and pulled up the text conversation between her and Nathan. She handed the phone over to the attorney to read through the few texts that were exchanged.

  **Chloe** : Yo, you twisted little fuck, if you don’t want all your secrets spilled you better find 3000 reasons to keep me quiet

  **Asshat** : Who the fuck is this? I’ll fucking kill you, who the fuck do you think you’re messing with?

  **Chloe** : Captain Jims ring a bell, you get off on drugging girls? How would your parents feel about that?

  **Asshat** : Fuck you, Price, who is going to believe a loser like you? You owe me a lamp, bitch

  **Chloe** : Blackwell, girls bathroom by the main entrance, 3:30pm tomorrow, bring those reasons or everyone knows your business, everyone

  **Asshat** : You say anything to anyone and it will be the last thing you do

  **Chloe** : See you there

 Sebastian allowed himself a little grin reading the messages. While yes, it showed Chloe had tried to blackmail Nathan, it painted Nathan in a much more negative light. He took a screenshot of the conversation then sent it to his own phone. “You didn’t send him any other messages that you’ve deleted or get in touch with him any other way? Email? Phone calls?”

 “No, that was the only conversation I had with him after that night and until the bathroom.” Chloe said, shaking her head.

 “Seeing this, they’d be foolish to want to use these texts as evidence. Yes, you are clearly attempting to extort money from Nathan but he’s the one who is making the violent threats. He mentions you owe him a lamp which collaborates what you said about being in his dorm room. These texts raise more questions than I think his attorney’s are going to want to address.” Sebastian said as he wrote a flurry of notes on the his notepad.

 “Now, what happened in the bathroom?” Sebastian knew Chloe had already told the police what had happened in the bathroom, it was unfortunate she’d already spoken to them on her own but hopefully she hadn’t said anything that could be damning to her.

 “I was a few minutes late and Nathan was already there when I walked into the bathroom. He was by the first sink, he was not looking good, he was gripping the sink like it was holding him up. I checked a few stalls to see if anyone was there. I really didn’t think anyone was there. I asked him if he had the money, he said he his family had money not him.” Chloe’s heart sped up, her palms were getting sweaty, a chill went down her spine. She had tried to forget everything about this moment, about how she was responsible for almost getting Max killed, it was all her fault. It was burned into her brain, she saw it whenever she closed her eyes. She never thought something bad enough would ever happen to replace the image of Nathan crawling towards her with the camera. She was so so fucking wrong, now all she saw was Max getting shot over and over.

 “I mentioned how he was selling drugs to the kids at school, maybe his family would want to know. I might have pushed him a bit, ah, verbally, saying how I was going to tell everyone how he was crazy and a punk ass but that was as far as I had gotten before he pulled out a gun and pointed it at me. He started waving it around, yelling how he was so sick of people telling him what to do. He was hella unhinged. I told him he’d get into a lot more trouble for the gun and then he pushed me, he had it against my stomach. I was so sure I was gonna die.” Chloe started visibly shaking, she was right back in that moment.

 “OK, Chloe, you’re doing great, just take a breath.” The older man put a comforting hand on Chloe’s shoulder. Chloe took a few moments to calm her pounding heart down, it felt like it was about to come right through her chest. The feel of the gun, pressed against her, she could still feel it.

 “Then, out of nowhere, there’s Max. I thought it was like a hallucination or something because I was about to die… She yelled at him, she yelled ‘Hey, leave her alone!’, like some badass action hero.” Chloe had hoped it would be easier to tell the story again, especially after telling it to Max but it wasn’t. It still brought up all those feeling of terror, surprise, confusion, they all bubbled around in her stomach, in her veins, she was feeling lightheaded. So much blood. _Deep breathes, almost done._

 “Nathan, he, we both were shocked, surprised, he, um, he turned around and fired... Like Max was standing there, her hand out like she was trying to reach me from the other side of the bathroom...he fired the gun… it was like slow motion, Max did a spin, like a little spin when it hit her… I still couldn’t believe what I was seeing, it was Max, I hadn’t seen Max in five years but it was her, it was her voice, it was really Max… in the bathroom…” Chloe still thought maybe she was in a dream and the last week or two would have only been a nightmare, that she had not gotten her best friend from childhood shot in a dirty bathroom of a school she despised by a guy who had almost (she was pretty sure) raped her. Seriously, was the Universe that much into fucking with her? What the hell had she done in a past life to deserve this? Was she Hitler or something?

 “Um, Max, she fell and Nathan, he dropped the gun and he was yelling, I didn’t really hear what he was saying because all I saw was Max, on the ground and the blood… I ran over to her and I took off my flannel. I was trying to remember what I learned in first aid. I held my flannel over where I thought, where the blood… you know, apply pressure to the wound...Fuck...I got my best friend shot… she was almost killed because of me…” Unable to keep sitting, Chloe jumped up and started pacing the small room, her beanie now in her hands as she twisted it around.

“But she’s not and you didn’t do that, Chloe, Nathan Prescott did and we’re going to make sure he doesn’t get away with it.” Sebastian said calmly while taking down notes, he wished he could tell her that it was alright, she’d told him enough and could stop but he needed her to tell him everything. He’d seen a lot of upset people, had heard a lot of horrible stories over the years but only a handful had truly affected him, watching Chloe Price recount what happened, he could feel her pain and self loathing as if it was his own.

“Yeah, right, he wouldn’t have been there with a fucking gun if it wasn’t for me…”

“Chloe, you can’t say things like that, especially to anyone else. That would be very bad for the case, understand? I know you blame yourself but you can’t say that because it would be taken the wrong way. Nathan shot Max, it’s Nathan’s fault, not your fault.” His stern tone pulled Chloe out of the dark place she’d been spiraling into. She took another deep breath, her pacing slowed down, her shoulders pulled back as her face took on a determined look.

“Ok, right….Um, Nathan was curled up on the floor, under the bathroom sink, the gun was a few feet away from him. David came into the bathroom, he looked at me and Max, then Nathan started moving, he was moving in the direction of the gun. David tackled him and while he was trying to subdue Nathan, he was telling me to apply pressure, to look for an exit wound. When he got Nathan cuffed he came over and he was helping with Max, to get her in a better position, to slow the bleeding.” Chloe looked down at her hands expecting to see Max’s blood on them still. “Nathan was making this sound, like he was laughing while crying. The principal was there, I don’t remember seeing him come in but he was next to Nathan, then the police were there and the EMT’s. They made me let Max go, they pushed me away as they started working on her.” Finally, after getting it all out, Chloe collapsed on one of the little couches in the room, her hands over her eyes as she cried, as it all hit her again, all her mental strength leaving her, she didn’t give a shit if she was crying in front of a stranger. She almost got Max killed and she had the nerve to still be mad at the girl for not talking to her for the last 5 years? She had probably been safer, she’d been back in Chloe’s life, what for 2 seconds and was almost killed?

Sebastian sat down next to Chloe, handing her a box of kleenex. He put a fatherly arm around her shaking shoulders. He wasn’t an emotional type of guy, in his type of job, you couldn’t allow yourself the luxury but the girl next to him was so broken anyone with eyes could see that. She was carrying the weight of the world by herself on her thin shoulders. “You did good, kid, I know it was fucking brutal but you did good. That fucking little prick, Nathan and his shithead father are not going to buy their way out of this one. You didn’t shoot Max, you didn’t bring the gun, that piece of shit, Nathan, did not you. Max being shot is not your fault, do not take the blame for a worthless, self entitled, pussy like Nathan fucking Prescott.”

Hearing her attorney swear grabbed Chloe’s attention. In any other circumstance she wouldn’t have allowed some guy to put his arm around her but it was comforting, for a moment, if she closed her eyes, she could almost feel her own father sitting next to her. Loudly blowing her nose, Chloe wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Are you sure you’re an attorney and not a sailor with a mouth like that?” She weakly joked.

“In another life I might have not been this suave, sophisticated gentleman you see before you now, a misspent youth and all that you might say.” He smiled at her, ruffling her hair as he got up and walked back to his recorder, turning it off.

 “Ah, thanks.” Chloe wasn’t sure what she was thanking him for but it felt like it needed to be said regardless.  
  
“There’s a restroom across the hall, why don’t you get cleaned up, splash some water on your face. I’m going to talk to Max now, I’ll get you when I’m done.” It was the part of his job he liked the least, where he had to drag out all the secrets his clients tried to hide in the deepest darkest parts of their minds into the bright light of the day. There was no way to avoid it, there was nothing worse than being caught unaware during a trial. He knew he had asked a lot from Chloe but maybe he’d been able to help her see how what happen to Max wasn’t her fault. Or at least get her starting to let go some of the guilt she was carrying around, he’d seen people break under a lot less than what that kid was carrying around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to break this up, I wanted to add some Chloe/Max goodness but we have to get through all of this set up, it is necessary. That being said I have the next couple chapters done and I'm going on vacation next week, so maybe I'll post both of those before I leave since I won't be around for a couple weeks. Depends I guess if you all want them early, if people are enjoying this story so far. Thank you for the reviews, it really is what keeps me going.


	5. A Truth and a Few Lies

_All along the western front_  
_People line up to receive_  
_She got the power in her hand_  
_To shock you like you won't believe_

  
Max was getting worried as the time ticked by and Chloe hadn’t returned when Sebastian walked back into the room. The parents were still milling around, Ryan and David talking in the corner while Vanessa and Joyce sat on either side of Max.

“I need to speak to Max now, if you all could give us the room, please? You can wait in the family room down the hall and I’ll meet you there when I’m done here.” Sebastian gave the parents a dismissive, though not unkind, smile. Max was impressed how they all complied without so much as one question about what had happened with Chloe’s interview. David had looked like he was going to say something for a moment there but Joyce had elbowed him in the side, effectively shutting him up.

“How are you feeling, Max? I’m going to tell you the same thing I told Chloe. You need to be completely honest with me, alight? I’m going to record our conversation for notes and to refer to later.” Sebastian wasn’t as concerned about Max withholding information as he had been with Chloe. Max’s part in this whole situation was pretty small as to the how, unfortunately, she was the one bearing the brunt of the what. His briefcase was on the table next to Max’s bed, he was busy pulling out a notepad that was already covered with pages of notes and then a digital recorder.

“Ok, I’m as fine as I can be, I’m sick of being in the hospital, it’s so boring.” Max didn’t mean to sound like a grumpy teenager but it was hard not to, after a week of nonstop action, being laid up in a hospital was a whole new level of boredom.

“You’re really lucky, all things considered.” A blue folder was in Sebastian’s hands, it took Max a minute to realize it was her hospital chart from the cubby next to her door. He flipped through it while he continued to read through the pages, “It looks like the bullet missed all your major arteries and organs. You’re extremely lucky when you take into account the trajectory. Though it does look like you’re going to have some permanent damage to your right shoulder, a lot of ligament and nerve damage there. You’re in for a hard road with physical therapy. You’ve already had one surgery for the damage the bullet made on entrance, a few centimeters from your aorta and pulmonary artery. They’re already planning another surgery for your right shoulder in a few weeks.”

Max wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or making notes to himself. Her doctor had already been through all of this with her. She watched him reading her medical file, he wasn’t like any attorney she’d ever seen, not that she’d seen many but nothing like the ones on TV. He reminded her of Henry Rollins in a suit, the same sharp look and charisma.

“Are you experiencing any other effects?” He inquired, giving her a knowing look that made it clear he already knew the answer.

“Ah, I’ve had a couple panic attacks.” Max admitted, though she was right, he had already known by the complete lack of surprise on his face.

“Have you told anyone else about these or has anyone else been around when they happened?”

“The nurse, um, Nurse Rachel was here for the first one, that was the worst one. She talked me through it. What does this have to do with what happened?” Max asked unable to help herself. She was fully prepared to talk about what happened, maybe try to throw in a couple of fake rumors to get him on the trail of Jefferson and his connection to Nathan without drawing any suspicion on how she knew these things.

Instead of being annoyed that a teenager was questioning him, Sebastian gave a small chuckle. He liked these girls, they had spunk. “I ask because you are in for a long road and a mountain of medical bills, Max. I already know you had no clue what was going on in the bathroom. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time, we’ll get to that but we need to talk about something else first. And that would be filing a civil suit against Nathan Prescott, the Prescott family and quite possibly, Blackwell as well.”

“Wha...what?” Again, Max was thrown off balance, she didn’t want to sue anyone, she already had what she wanted which was Chloe alive and Arcadia Bay still standing. The idea of getting money made her incredibly uncomfortable, it didn’t feel right.

“With your injuries and the ongoing medical care they’re going to require, along with the panic attacks, Max, you need to think about the future. These are all injuries and situations you wouldn’t have had to deal with if Nathan hadn’t brought a gun to school and hurt you. If it was up to your parents, they would file the civil suit against the Prescotts tomorrow but it’s not up to them, it’s up to you, you’re a legal adult.” It was rare that Sebastian came across someone who wasn’t trying to find a way to make money off their injuries, looking for a way to make someone else financially pay for what had happened to them. “Insurance will only cover so much for so long and it all adds up quickly. I want to make sure you and your parents are financially taken care of to handle your needs, the immediate ones, along with future ones that we aren’t even aware of yet.”

“But I don’t want their money!” Thoughts were finally forming in Max’s head. The mention of ongoing mountains of medical bills had thrown her back to the alternate Chloe, where her father was still alive. The amount of medical bills Chloe’s parents had were crushing them. She didn’t want that for her parents, she was nowhere near as bad as Chloe had been but still, medical care was expensive. The thought of taking anything from the Prescott’s made her stomach churn though.

“Trust me, they wouldn’t be giving it to you willingly. I know it can be a distasteful thought, taking money from people who you don’t like, who have harmed you. Think of it as a way to help you get through this easier without worrying about the bills, without your parents worrying about the medical bills, all you need to do is concentrate on getting better, alright?”

Max looked down at her hand, she still had no feeling in her right arm. Simple everyday things she took for granted now were impossible. It was distasteful and unsettling to think about taking any money from the Prescott’s but Max couldn’t argue his logic. Why should her parents have to worry about the bills? She was well aware they were already spending a lot on their attorney it wasn’t fair to make them worry about her medical bills as well. “Yeah, ok, what would we need to do?”

“Don’t worry about that, my partner at the firm will handle that part, he’s a litigation attorney. We’ll talk more about this as things go forward with the criminal case against Nathan. Now, let’s get to that. Can you tell me what you remember from the bathroom when Nathan hurt you?”

Max had been practicing what to say since yesterday, she didn’t want to get any details mixed up from any of the other times she’d been in that same situation. She looked down and played with a thread from the sheet. “I went in there after class, I wasn’t feeling the greatest, so I wanted to splash some water on my face. No one else was in there when I walked in. I was by the sinks and noticed in the mirror that that there was a blue butterfly on the bucket in the corner. It was strange, to see a butterfly in the bathroom, especially in October. I’d never seen one quite that color before, it was like electric blue.” Max shook her head, realizing she was getting off topic. “I had my camera with me, so I walked over there, careful not to scare it. I had to move back further into the corner to line the shot up. I use an instant camera so it’s kind of loud when it takes pictures. When I took the shot, the butterfly flew away. I put my camera in my bag and waved the photo a bit to help it develop, to see if I had gotten a good image. That’s when I heard Nathan come in, he seemed all hyped up. Talking like he was stressed out, trying to calm himself down or hype himself up, maybe? I stayed where I was because I was a bit shocked, like what was he doing in the girls bathroom acting all weird. He was saying how he ruled the school, he could blow it up if he wanted to. I stayed where I was hoping he’d realize he was in the wrong bathroom and leave, maybe he made a mistake? I didn’t want to deal with him, he scared me, the way he was talking, I could hear him pacing around.”

“You heard Nathan say he could blow up the school?” Sebastian clarified.

“Yeah, he talking to himself, saying he was in control, like giving himself a pep talk. It was creepy.”

“Alright so you’re in the corner, where Nathan couldn’t see you. Did you know it was Nathan?”

“Not at first but he was talking about himself in the third person, the first thing he said was ‘It’s cool, Nathan.’ That’s when I peeked around the corner and saw it was him. Then like a minute later Chloe came into the bathroom.”

“Did you know it was Chloe at the time?”

“No, I heard them argue a bit then she sounded panicked and asked him what he was doing with the gun. She sounded so scared and he was getting more and more hysterical. I don’t know what came over me, maybe subconsciously I knew it was her by her voice. But I came out from the corner where I was hiding and that’s when it gets a bit hazy, I yelled something then I felt this white hot pain and then Chloe’s face... that’s all I remember until i woke up here a few days ago.” Max had practiced that part countless times, hoping it sounded believable, not like anyone else would think it wasn’t, that she had played that scene out over and over with different results each time until she finally got it right. So many failed attempts to save Chloe, so many times she had to watch Chloe get shot over and over. She knew that Chloe was alive, that Chloe was physically fine but it was still hard to see.

“Great, just a couple follow up questions.” Sebastian looked over his notes, then flipped back to his interview with Chloe.

“Now, both you and Chloe have stated that you hadn’t talked for 5 years, why is that?”

“My family moved to Seattle five years ago. I, ah, I don’t know why I didn’t keep in touch with her. I felt so guilty about leaving her, it was hard and then as time went on, I felt so stupid, like she was probably so mad at me she wouldn’t want to hear from me. I wanted to let her know I was back in Arcadia bay but I wasn’t sure, so much time had passed. I felt like the biggest loser, she was my best friend and I had just left her behind, never talked to her again. I wasn’t sure how to make things right, how to talk to her.” Max felt her throat tighten up and her eyes were starting to blur with unshed tears. She was so ashamed of herself, that she didn’t let Chloe know she was back in town.

"I didn't go to the moon, I went much further for time is the longest distance between two places." Sebastian recited, giving Max an understanding look.

“Yeah, exactly, Tennessee Williams was right.” It made Max think of another quote from the same play. ‘ _Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.’ Pretty much sums up my entire life right now._

“What kind of reputation does Nathan have at school? ” The attorney didn’t want to lead Max by asking about the drugs outright.

It was the opportunity Max had been waiting for, she was given the chance to point someone in Jefferson and Nathan’s direction without it seeming out of left field. She blinked a few times, wiped her eyes from the tears that still lingered. “Um, I’ve heard he sells drugs to other kids at school. A couple people mentioned that he might know what happened to Rachel Amber, that he had a thing for her.” Than an idea hit Max, so horrible but perfect that it might work, it would be her word against Nathan’s which at this point wasn’t worth much. “Wait, I just remembered, in the bathroom, when he was talking before Chloe came in, he said something like, ‘Jefferson won’t be happy, I can’t let him down.’

Sebastian stopped writing, giving Max a quizzical look. “Do you know who he was talking about?”

Max took a deep breath, slowing her breathing down to hide her excitement, it seemed she’d gotten her attorney’s attention with that. “Yeah, I assume he was talking about our Photography teacher, Mr. Mark Jefferson. I don't know what he has to do with Nathan but I heard other kids saying that supposedly Mr. Jefferson and Rachel Amber had something going on, um, beyond a normal student teacher relationship… ” Max didn’t want to overplay her hand, she’d already picked up on how sharp Sebastian was, she was sure he’d do something with the information.

Sebastian went through his notes again, flipping back and forth between the pages. “Both you and Chloe have mentioned Rachel Amber, did you know her, too?”

By this point, Max felt as if she did but she knew she couldn’t tell him that. This was proving to be harder than she thought, trying to keep back everything she knew that she shouldn’t. “No, she disappeared before I got to Blackwell but everyone still talks about her and her missing posters are everywhere.”

“Alright, that should be enough for now, Max. I’m going to go speak to your parents and Chloe’s. Thank you for you time.”

“Um, Mr, Sendal?” Max called out to get his attention as he started packing up all his files and notes.

“Sebastian, please. Did you have some questions?”

“Yeah, um, can they really arrest Chloe? Are they going to?” To go through all of this to only have Chloe arrested and in jail was not an appealing idea to Max. She’d tell everyone about Jefferson, Nathan, Rachel, the dark room and be looked at like a freak for the rest of her life before she let that happen. Maybe she could claim to be psychic?

“I can’t guarantee anything, Max, but in my professional opinion, they would be opening themselves up to a lot more legal problems and even more charges if they tried to pursue anything against Chloe but that’s only based on what I know right now. I’ll do everything I can to prevent that from happening though, alright?” The attorney wasn’t into making false promises or giving false hope but unless they had something on Chloe he didn't know about, he didn’t think they’d be reckless enough to try and pursue the self defense route.

The confidence in his answer put Max at ease. The night before and most of today had been spent worrying about what kind of trouble Chloe could get in. It was no secret, at least not to her, and probably their attorney now, that Chloe had tried to blackmail Nathan. As weak as it was, she still had but Max knew if they did that then they would have to address what Chloe was trying to blackmail him about. She was sure the Prescotts wouldn’t want that to get out. Which was worse? That their kid had a mental breakdown and shot someone or that he was an attempted rapist, would more girls come forward if that came out, change the attempted to actual?

“I know it’s hard but try not to worry, Max, I told Chloe the same thing. I’m not going to let the Prescott’s put either of you girls through anything else. You two just look out for each other, you’re both going through a lot and have a long road ahead of you. The best thing for you both is to stick together and take care of each other right now.” Picking up his briefcase, he ruffled Max’s hair much like he had to Chloe, “Don’t let those 5 years hold you back, it seems you have another chance now to regain your friendship.”

“Thanks” Max replied, looking down to hide the blush creeping over her face, she had no intention of ever letting Chloe out of her life again.

 

* * *

 

“Damn, that was hella intense.” Chloe said as way of greeting. She walked into the room with her normal swagger, eating from a bag of Flamin Hot Cheetos, there was a joke in there somewhere but Max was too glad to see her to come up with one. Her fingertips were bright red, the Cheeto dust coating them. By the way she was acting you would never have guessed she’d spent the better part of the morning avoiding Max.

“Yeah, you can say that again.” Max didn’t care, whatever was bothering the older girl earlier didn’t appear to be bothering her anymore.

“Damn, that was heeeeellllllaaa intense.” Chloe laughed, shoving a couple more Cheetos in her mouth.

“Ok, that was lame.” Max laughed, reaching out with her good arm in a gimme gesture. Chloe passed her the bag with a smirk. There were only bright red crumbs left in the very bottom. “And you’re lame, I can’t believe you didn’t save me any.”

“Hey, I had the mega munchies, I saved you the crumbs.” Chloe sat down in the chair next to Max, where Vanessa normally sat. She grabbed the remote that was attached to the bed, flipping through the channels.

“Geez, how kind of you.” Max crumbled up the bag as best as she could with one hand and threw it at the girl next to her. “Oh, come on, Chloe, not Maury, it’s so fucking depressing. Oh, wait, are they showing the same one from the other day?”

“No, it’s the same chick, oh my God, this is like her sixth time on there! Geez, homegirl got around a lot that week, I guess.” Chloe chuckled at the girl on tv’s clear distress. She wasn’t a cruel person but really, if someone was going to be bringing a plethora of guys on a national tv show to take a paternity test, then she was going to laugh at the absurdity of it.

“You’d be surprised at how much can happen in a week.”

“Yeah, I guess so but, damn.” Chloe pulled another small bag of chips out of her jacket pocket, tossing them on Max’s stomach. “She has to be just grabbing random guys at this point to bring on, this guy says he’s just her mailman!”

Max squealed in delight at the chips, Cool Ranch, her favorite. Her eyebrows scrunched together as she tried to figure out how to open them one handed. She was about to use her teeth before Chloe reached over, grabbing them and opening them before handing them back to Max, her eyes never leaving the drama on the small tv in front of them. Her long legs were splayed out in front of her as she sat hunched down in the chair, her ever present beanie hanging at a quirky angle.

“Don’t use your teeth, you don’t want to ruin that smile, Warren might get upset.” Chloe teased, at least she was pretty sure she was teasing Max, all in good fun, right?

With a mighty roll of her eyes, Max laughed sarcastically. “Yeah, not really concerned. He just doesn’t take a hint well and I don’t want to lose him as a friend.”

“I could tell him for you next time he stops by, Yo, Blackwell bro, Max isn’t interested in studying biology with you.”

“Um, thanks but I’ll handle it.” Max said eagerly shoving chips in her mouth. Besides Joyce’s chocolate cake a couple days ago, she’s been living on hospital food. Admittedly, it was a step up from most of the cafeteria food but nothing you’d want to eat long term, like would it kill them to use a bit of salt?

“If you change your mind, let me know.” Chloe continued to stare at the TV as if she was fascinated in the quest to find the father of the adorable toddler pictured in the background.

They were both avoiding talking about their respective meetings with Sebastian. It was the uninvited guest, sitting between them, not taking the multiple hints that it was time to go. As much as she told herself to stop, Max’s eyes kept drifting over to Chloe, like a compass needle that was always drawn to north. She really wished she had her camera, Chloe was laughing as the girl was yet again informed that the poor slob she’d dragged to the show was not the father. Her hair looked like she’d been running her fingers through it for hours, it was pointing in all different directions from under her beanie which was askew on her head, there was red flamin hot dust on her upper lip and her shirt was wrinkled, a splattered stain by her stomach, light brown, more than likely coffee, she was a mess but she was a beautiful mess as far as Max was concerned.

“Oh, my God, Max, did you see tha…..What?” The laughter died as she noticed how intensely Max was looking at her. She self consciously tugged a few pieces of hair back in place under the beanie.

“Um, you have Cheeto dust all around your mouth.” Max quickly looked away, slightly embarrassed at being caught staring so intently at the blue haired girl.

“Oh, you still hungry? Want some?” Chloe joked though feeling a bit uneasy because it had looked like maybe Max really did want to eat her face for a moment there, the way she was staring at her. She wasn’t entirely sure if the way her stomach flipped at thinking about Max eating her face was a good thing or a bad one. Chloe wiped the dust off her top lip then made a move as if she was going shove her finger in Max’s mouth.

“Eww, you’re so gross.” Max laughed, pushing Chloe’s hand away.

“What ever, if you’re that hungry, Max, I could go grab you some more chips or something from the vending machine. No need to steal my Cheeto powder.” Chloe shrugged, sucking the red dust off her finger.

“No, it’s ok, I’m dying for a burger and some fries, oh and a chocolate shake. Don’t suppose you have those in your pocket do you?”

Chloe started patting herself down, making a show of checking her pockets. “Um, nope but I do have this stick of gum.” Chloe held up the bent stick of gum. She had an adorably, exaggerated,  remorseful look as she went to hand it to Max.

“Thanks anyway but I guess it’s hospital food for lunch again.” Max said, waving the gum away.

“Suit yourself, I’ve got mad cheeto breath anyways, I probably need it more.” Chloe unwrapped it and popped it in her mouth, almost immediately snapping it out of habit.

“So, um, how did things go with Mr. Sendal?” Max cautiously asked, not sure if she should bring it up.

“Ah, you know, he asked questions, I told him what happened, it was hard going back over a few things but I survived.” Chloe didn’t want to rehash everything, not yet, maybe later but it was still too fresh. “How did things go for you?”

“I don’t know if I was much help, I don’t remember much. But he did say he was pretty confident that they wouldn’t pursue any charges against either of us.” Max hesitated, wondering if she should tell Chloe how their attorney thought she should sue the Prescotts and possibly Blackwell for everything. Deciding in the end it would probably be best if she heard it from Max instead of someone else. “He did mention though that he wants me to sue the Prescotts, you know to help cover the medical bills and everything.”

“Fuck yeah, nail those bastards to the wall and take them for every fucking penny, Max, they’ve been doing that shit to everyone in Arcadia Bay for years. Fuck them pricks.”

Max stared out at the familiar drama on the screen, another DNA test another Not the Father. “Yeah, I just feel weird about it, like it’s wrong somehow. Like to get paid for this…”

“Max, Sebastian seems hella smart, I’d follow along with whatever he suggests. Plus, he has a point about medical bills and shit. Seriously, why shouldn’t you get paid for what that fucker did to you? You didn’t ask for any of this.” Chloe was up and pacing again, unable to understand why Max had a problem with suing the Prescott’s. It didn’t escape Chloe, the irony in how she had tried to get Nathan to pay for what he did to her. Now though she was looking at possibly getting arrested while Max was hurt in Chloe’s attempt to get money from Nathan. See, the Universe was really just fucking with her by this point.

“I get it, I do but it’s fucking weird, it feels so wrong.” Max looked down at the plain white hospital blanket covering her.

Sitting softly on the side of Max’s bed, Chloe picked up the younger girl’s hand, lightly squeezing it between her own before lacing their fingers together. “Max, what’s wrong is that you should be able to use the bathroom at your own school without worrying about getting shot by some fucked up dickhead. What’s wrong is that entire family feels so self important, so above it all, that they think they shouldn’t be held accountable for the shit they do. And what’s tragically wrong, on a cosmic scale, is that you’re stuck here, lying in a hospital bed, partially paralyzed while your college fund gets sucked dry from medical bills and attorney fees because of what that son of a bitch did to you. What he did to both of us.”

Slowly, Max brought her head up, amazed at the gentle, almost tender, definitely protective, tone Chloe had used.

“You’re right…” Max replied just above a whisper, there was a heavy feeling of expectation between them, like they were both waiting for the other to do...something… their faces were inches apart, Max could smell Chloe’s spearmint gum each time the older girl exhaled.

“Well, that was faster than expected.” Sebastian said, closing the door a little harder than planned as it slammed.

Chloe jumped back, dropping Max’s hand as if it was on fire. It took Max a few moments to realize what had happened.

“Wha...What?” Chloe stammered out, clearly flustered and then annoyed because she didn’t know why she was feeling flustered. It was just a pep talk, a way to get Max to not feel bad about suing those Prescott assholes. So why did it feel like her cheeks were burning up?

“Your parents had surprisingly a lot less questions than I anticipated, well, except for David, he’s is a suspicious one.” If Sebastian suspected he had interrupted anything, he wasn’t letting on. “Though, he might be able to help a lot more I realized. His position as the head of security means he probably has a lot of information we can use.”

David? Useful? There was a thought Chloe had never entertained in her life before and probably never would again.

“I’ve got a lot of information to go through but for right now, we’re going to hold off on your statement to the police for the time being, Max. At least until you’re out of the hospital. Until than, I do not want either of you talking to anyone else about anything we talked about today, not even your parents.” Sebastian looked at each girl until they both nodded. “Great, now as far as charges against either of you. I don't think we have anything to worry about in regards to you, Max. It’s a bit more complicated with you, Chloe. I’m not saying they will try to arrest you. I still believe they would be crazy if all they have to go on are those texts messages but at the same time, these attorney’s they’ve hired, they’re pretty morally bankrupt so we need to be ready in case they do plan on pressing the extortion angle.”

“Wait, I thought you said that they didn’t have a case?” Max was shaking, unsure if she was more pissed or more scared.

“I don’t think they have a case but that doesn’t mean that they might not find some other evidence or decide to try and press the issue because if they could get you arrested on a felony charge of extortion or blackmail, it only helps their case. I don’t say this to scare you because if they do try to arrest you, Chloe, that leaves the door open to go into the circumstances that lead up to your actions.” Sebastian was doing everything to reassure the scared girls in front of him but at the same time, he needed them to be aware of what could happen so they didn’t feel betrayed or lied to if the worst case scenario happened. He needed them prepared, not upset or scared.

Chloe was dreading telling Max about the events leading up to the bathroom but knew she had to. Like it or not, she’d dragged Max into all of this, so it was only fair that she knew everything as well. Plus, Chloe didn’t want the younger girl to think she went around trying to threaten people for money for no reason. Chloe did a lot of questionable things but she wasn’t some wannabe thug.

“When will we know?” If it was going to happen, Chloe just wanted it over and done with so they could deal with it.

“I expect if they are going to make a move then it would most likely be before his arraignment hearing in two weeks, when they enter his formal plea and to see if he’s eligible for bail. Me educated guess would be if they are going to make a move to file charges, it would be between now and then.”

Chloe felt sick again but part of her thought she deserved to locked up like Nathan, it was her fault, she set everything in motion. Maybe Max would be safe as far away from her as possible, maybe everyone would be better off.

“Look, I don’t want either of you to panic, if and that’s a big if, they do arrest you, Chloe, the only words out of your mouth, no matter what is, I want want to speak to my attorney. Do you understand? Those are the only words you say.  And if you’re with her, Max, you do not say a word, no matter how upset you are, no matter what they do, you do not say a word, you call me immediately.” Sebastian handed each girl one of his business cards. “Do not lose these cards, they have my personal cellphone number on them. You call me immediately. If the police show up here to talk to you, Max, you say you want to speak to your attorney, do not let them goad either of you into saying anything, understand?”

 _Shit just got real, real fast. This is more than telling someone what happened, this is fucking real, homeboy just gave us his personal cell number. He has to suspect they’re going to arrest me more than he’s letting on._ Chloe blew out a breath, staring up at the ceiling. A warm hand clasped hers, intertwining their fingers. She felt the slight tremble in the grip, Max was as freaked out as her.

“Ok, there’s only a few more things I need to go over with you all. I know it’s been a long hard day but you both are doing great.” Sebastian stuck his head out the door, calling their parents back into the room.

Vanessa went to sit in the chair she’d occupied since Max was brought into this room after surgery but found Chloe not looking like she was going anywhere. Her and Max were holding hands as if the connection was the only thing keeping them afloat. Vanessa instead went and stood with her husband at the foot of Max’s bed, next to Joyce while David lean against the wall, slightly apart from everyone else.

“It’s been a long day for all of us,” Sebastian started, “there’s only one more thing I want to go over with everyone for now. Due to the status of the Prescott’s there has been a growing media interest surrounding this case. It’s only getting more intense as the arraignment gets closer and more details are coming out. It is imperative that no one speaks to the media. I don’t care what they say because you are going to hear all kinds of horrible things about yourselves, about your children, about each other. It doesn’t matter. They are baiting you and now a days, cases are tried in the court of public opinion as much as in the courtroom.” Hard green eyes looked at everyone, driving home how serious he was about this. “No matter what, you keep your cool at all times, you do not give them the satisfaction of getting a video or a picture of any of you losing your shit, am I crystal clear on this?” It was the closest Sebastian had gotten to lecturing any of them that day but he needed to make sure they understood how crucial this was.

Everyone nodded, with a few yes’ and yeah’s thrown in. Satisfied that they got it, Sebastian’s stern father expression morphed into a big smile. “Good, if it gets too bad, if the media is too persistent, let me know, I’ll handle it. Now, I’m going to my hotel room and start getting my notes in order. Ryan, I’ll give you a call tomorrow, if I need anything else for the time being I’ll let you know. Otherwise, I’ll be in touch in the next few days.”

After another round of handshakes and thank you’s, Sebastian left. Everyone stood around, emotionally drained and not sure what they could talk about. There were a few awkward moments. Chloe still hadn’t moved from what Vanessa considered her chair.

Max was a bit freaked out thinking about the media attention, she hadn’t even thought about that. Being under media scrutiny sounded like one of Dante's nine circles of hell. As much as she wasn’t looking forward to that, the thought that Chloe might not be as safe as she had thought, as much as she had believed was enough to make her want to scream with frustration. When Sebastian gave them instructions on what to do if Chloe was arrested, Max had felt her blood run cold. Her mind wa still racing, formulating a way to ensure Chloe was safe while Nathan and Jefferson were held accountable for what they had done.

“I have my shift at the diner in about an hour.” Joyce announced looking at her watch. “Vanessa, Ryan, why don’t you come down to the diner, grab an early dinner?”

Vanessa gave a hesitant look in Max’s clearly torn over eating something besides hospital food and staying behind to make sure Max was alright. “I’m not sure…”

“Go, ahead, Mom, you can bring me back a cheeseburger and some fries.” Max encouraged. She loved having her parents around but it had been a bit suffocating, they had both been there almost every moment since Max had woken up. And she really wanted a cheeseburger from Two Whales.

“Yeah, go on, I’ll stay with Max.” Chloe volunteered. She didn’t have anything else to do. And there was the matter of telling Max what had happened with Nathan, better to get it out of the way there was no point in dragging it out.

“If you’re sure…” Vanessa looked conflicted, the only time she left the hospital was to go back to hers and Ryan’s hotel room at night, after the basically being kicked out for staying past visiting hours.

“Thank you, Joyce, that sounds perfect.” Ryan said, gently taking his wife’s arm to walk her out of Max’s room. “The girls will be fine and I can’t deprive Max of a cheeseburger, what kind of father would I be?”

“We won’t be gone long, sweetie.” Vanessa said over her shoulder as Ryan dragged her out.

“Grab Max a chocolate shake, too!” Chloe called out to her mom as they all finally left.

“Wowser, talk about flashbacks to being a kid. Mom acted the same way whenever they were going out for the night and left me with a babysitter.” Max laughed. The only time Vanessa never had a problem leaving Max when she was little was with Chloe’s family.

“Well, you’re mommy’s precious little Maxy-waxy.” Chloe teased, using a cute sing songy voice.

“Oh, my Dog, I can’t believe you remember that!” Max laughed even harder.

“How could I forget?” Chloe laughed so hard she snorted. When Vanessa would drop Max off at the Price household when she was a little kid, her mom would always pinch her cheeks while saying in a baby voice, ‘You be a good girl, I lub you, you’re Mommy’s precious Maxy-Waxy.’

“Oh, man, it was fine when I was 5 but she didn’t stop that until I was like 9.” Max hung her head remembering the embarrassment.

“Aww, it’s ok, Maxy-Waxy…” Chloe snorted out, holding her side she was laughing so hard. It wasn’t that funny but after the emotionally draining day, it felt good to laugh together, to have a release.

“Oh, shut up, ChloBear.” Max pouted playfully, it wasn’t fair that Chloe didn’t have an embarrassing nickname that Max could use against her, even her childhood nickname was cute. They sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, for once not worrying about the missed time or who was at fault for what.

Chloe started fidgeting in her chair, looking at Max then looking away. It was clear there was something she wanted to talk about but Max was afraid to call her out on it, not wanting to ruin the nice moment they were sharing. Finally, after for a few false starts Chloe turned nervously to face a very relaxed looking Max. She felt a bit bad that she was going to break the warm mood but she was determined to tell Max everything, like pulling a band aid off, get it done and out of the way.  

“Nathan drugged me.” Chloe spit out suddenly. Max raised her eyebrows, she already knew but Chloe didn’t know she knew, it sucked, she didn’t want the older girl to suffer unnecessarily through the story again.

“That’s so fucked up!” Even having heard this all before and experiencing something very similar herself in the Dark Room, it still made Max’s blood boil. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.” Max said remorsefully, taking Chloe’s hand in her own.

“Yeah, he didn’t, um, didn’t touch me, like rape me..I woke up with all my clothes on still, he was taking pictures of me.” Both girls were shaking, there were more ways to take advantage of someone, that made them vulnerable then sexually assaulting them.  “But that was why I was trying to blackmail him, to keep quiet.” Chloe finished bitterly, her blue eyes hard.

Chloe’s admission inadvertently triggered Max’s own memories of the Dark Room. Max gripped Chloe’s hand harder, as she felt that now familiar feeling of her heart pounding hard, each breath a struggle. _No, no not now, not when Chloe it opening up to me, get it together…._

The blue haired girl looked at her with alarm, immediately knowing something was wrong. Panic flashed across Chloe’s features as Max’s eyes darted all over the room, struggling to breath. It felt like Max would break her hand with how hard she was squeezing it. “Max, Max, oh, God, should I get a doctor…”

“No..” Max squeaked out, fighting through the attack.

“OK, ok, calm down, it’s ok, Maximo, I’m right here with you, you’re not alone, I’m right here.” Chloe flew out of the chair to sit on Max’s bed, awkwardly stroking the younger girls head, as she leaned down to whisper in Max’s ear. Max still had her hand in a death grip, Chloe brought their clenched hands over her heart. “Come on, Max, breathe, It’s alright, breathe with me.”

Max tried to concentrate on Chloe’s voice, it was like a life preserver thrown to her as she was drowning in her panic and flashbacks. The sound of the camera flash, his words _‘The slightly unconscious model is often the most open and honest.’_ , the bright flash, these kept playing over and over in her head. She struggled to push that all aside, to only hear Chloe’s voice, see her blue eyes, feel the steady rise and fall of her breathing.

Chloe stroked Max’s cheek, brushing the tears away, catching the younger girl's eyes and staring deeply in them as she took exaggerated breaths. “Come on, Max, in and out, you’re ok, Just look at me. I’ve got you, stay right here with me.”

Slowly, what felt like a lifetime to Chloe, the younger girl’s breathing started to calm down, no longer taking huge gulps of air. Chloe continued to murmur soothing words to Max, stroking her cheek, keeping her there in the room with her and out of the dark recesses of her mind that she had been lost in.

“Shit…” Max breathed out heavily, earning a small smile from Chloe, “I’m so sorry…”

Chloe shook her head, giving Max an understanding smile, hiding how freaked out the entire situation had made her. She was confused at what had set off Max’s panic attack, did just talking about Nathan set it off? Was this a result of the shooting? Chloe wanted to punch herself in the face, it was bad enough the physical recovery Max had ahead of her but now she was having panic attacks, too. This is what happened to anyone around Hurricane Chloe “It’s ok, though damn, for someone so tiny, you have a hella fierce grip on you.”

“Oh, fuck...” Max quickly released Chloe’s hand with an expression of regret, realizing how hard she’d been gripping it. “I’m sorry…”

Max was still feeling light headed and disoriented, she had felt as if she was right back in the Dark Room, she could faintly feel the tape on her wrists.

Flexing her hand to get feeling back in it, Chloe smiled at Max, filled with relief and a tinge of sadness. “You don’t have anything to apologize for, seriously.” _No, that would be all me._

“I feel like such a baby, I’m so sorry, Chloe. I really didn’t want to lose it in front of you.” Max was mortified she’d had a panic attack in front of Chloe, that she wasn’t acting like such a hero and more like a refugee from the Isle of Misfit Toys.

“Hey, if you can’t lose your shit in front of me then who can you?” Chloe shrugged it off, wanting to downplay it if only to save Max from the embarrassment she could tell the other girl was feeling. “Was, um, was that the first panic attack you’ve had?”

Max looked down, Chloe was still sitting close to her, it was hard to think when she was that close, impossible to lie. “Um, no, the third, well the second real one, i almost had one the other day but was able to snap out of it before it was like full blown.”

“Hey, don’t be embarrassed, it’s not like you asked for them. I use to get them, after my dad died and you... well. I haven’t had one in a long time.” Chloe admitted with a shrug, ignoring the urge in her to keep her weak spots safe and hidden. She leaned back, putting some space between her and Max, now that she knew the other girl was alright for the moment. Not because she was feeling incredibly vulnerable, that had nothing to do with it.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you.” Max replied sadly, feeling inadequate and lame. The words didn’t come close to expressing how sorry she was for missing those 5 years of Chloe’s life; to explain how much her own life had been desperately lacking for those same years without Chloe in them.

“You’re here now.” Chloe glanced at Max with troubled eyes before looking at the ceiling, it was almost a question instead of a statement. As if Chloe was worried that Max was going to up and leave again at any moment.

“Chloe, I’m not going anywhere, again, ok?” Max reassured Chloe who looked as if she could bolt at any minute or make a smart ass remark to brush the moment they were having aside, to make it less than it was. Either option was as likely as the other when it came to the blue haired girl next to her. Which is why Chloe’s response was so surprising.

“You can’t promise that, Max, no one can.” Chloe replied desolately, breaking Max’s heart a little. She would have preferred Chloe running out the door to avoid the situation than the hopelessness she heard in her voice.

Max reached over, grabbing Chloe’s hand again, tugging on it until she looked at her. “I can, I am. We just got the band back together, we can’t break it up again.”

Chloe gave Max a small smile then rolled her eyes. “Ugh, I think talking about everything that happened, bring it all up, it’s got me fucked up in the head right now. I really need to smoke up.”

Chloe stood, walking over to the window to look out over the parking lot. Her reflection in the window made her grimace, her hair was all over the place and her eyes looked haunted. _Come on, get it together, girl, why are you falling apart? Toughen up, shake it off, put on your game face._

“Pretty sure that window doesn’t open, even if it did I know they don’t allow smoking of any type in the hospital” Max smirked, doing her best to lighten the dark, heavy mood in the room.

“Aren’t you a buzz kill.” Chloe turned giving Max a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Do you know in Israel they give people medical weed in the hospital? They’ve been studying the medical benefits of marijuana for years there. You know, when we get out of here, maybe you should try it, it helps with panic attacks.”

Max laughed, of course Chloe would be trying to “corrupt” her before she was even out of the hospital. “What makes you think I haven’t tried it already?”

Chloe snickered, walking over to the foot of Max’s bed, crossing her arms, “Yeah right, because you’re still Max Caulfield. The same Max who freaked out when we got into my mom’s wine, who I had to spend over 2 hours convincing to even try a beer. The same Max who actually took the DARE program in school seriously.”

“Hey, those DARE videos were terrifying, I mean the one where that guy took acid then jumped off a bridge and ended up with brain damage…”

Chloe laughed, a full, unfiltered laugh, holding her sides, “Max that was from an old Degrassi High episode!”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right…” Max grinned, remembering watching the old Degrassi High reruns with Chloe when she was in junior high. She had felt so grown up than, watching those old shows that talked about sex, drugs and everything she imagined high school would be about. Who knew her own high school experience would be shaping up to be a lot more dramatic than Degrassi ever was, even in the next generation episodes with Drake.

“You’re so hopeless, Caulfield.” Chloe continued laughing but Max didn’t mind, she’d let Chloe poke fun at her all day, every day, if it meant the other girl would laugh like she was right than.

 

* * *

 

**Four Days Later...**

“Are you sure you’re fine? I could see if I could take some more time off work, stay here with you? We could stay at the motel.” Vanessa fussed over her daughter as they walked into the Price household.

They had finally released Max from the hospital and were moving her into Chloe’s house until she could take care of herself enough to go back to her dorm. Two days before she had started feeling a tingling in her fingertips. Max wasn’t one to easily cry but feeling anything in her right hand had brought her to a few grateful tears. After close to a week awake and feeling nothing, she had convinced herself she’d never have any use of her right arm and hand again, that is was some cosmic payback for cheating the storm. Dr. Patel had been pleased with Max’s progress and finally released her. She still had to go back the next week for a follow up and to get started with physical therapy but at least she was finally out of the hospital.

“Mom, I’ll be fine, you don’t have to miss more work for me. Besides you have that project you’re starting in a couple weeks, I know you still have a ton of prep work to do.” Max replied for what felt like the hundredth time. It was sweet that her mom wanted to stay but Max was ready for a little bit of space from her well intentioned mom.

“Vanessa, sweetie, Max will be fine with Joyce and Chloe both mother henning over her. And she has a point, you worked hard on getting them to approve your program, you need to be there to help set it all up.” Ryan placed a supportive arm around his wife’s shoulders, giving her a side hug. Vanessa was the Literature and Humanities Program Manager for the Seattle Public Library System. She had been working with the board for almost a year to get a new literacy outreach program started that went to local shelters to train and support the employees there with starting a literacy program for their residents.

“I know, but I feel like I’m putting my responsibility onto Joyce and Chloe.” Vanessa confessed with a sigh, looking between her husband and daughter. Vanessa had been struggling with the guilt of leaving her daughter when she was only starting her recovery, she didn’t want Max to feel as if she was being abandoned.

“Oh, hush, Vanessa, we want to do this for Max, it’s the least we can do, right Chloe?” Joyce waved her hand, as if the mere idea of Max staying with them was any kind of a problem was absurd.

Chloe walked past loaded down carrying a box full of Max’s stuff from her dorm room and a guitar slung over her back. “Yeah, it’ll be like when we were kids, it’s going to be great.”

Chloe carried Max’s stuff upstairs while Joyce went to start some coffee for the adults. The house looked same as it had when Max was there in the other timeline. The same wine strain on the carpet, the same photos on the fridge. It was an odd sensation of familiarity instead of deja vu. Chloe loudly clomped down the stairs and out the door, returning moments later with Max’s duffle bag of clothes.

“Yo, Maxium, come on up.” Chloe called as she went bounding up the stairs again.

Max followed her up, much slower, she was paranoid about her balance. She was a bit on the klutzy side before when she had the use of both arms, she couldn’t imagine she’d be better with only one. Stepping into Chloe’s room was a surprise, it was a lot cleaner than it had been in the other timeline. A lot of the clutter she had come to associate with the older girl’s room was nowhere to be found. Chloe had set Max’s things down by the desk, an excited grin on her face.

“My room looks a bit different than the last time you saw it.” Chloe lightly laughed, almost embarrassed. “No more Yellowcard or Something Corporate Posters.”

“Yeah, your taste in wall art has definitely, um, evolved.” Max snickered looking at the more adult, definitely not PG posters and graffiti on the walls. Inwardly laughing, Max was shocked she hadn’t picked up on how clearly not straight Chloe was the first time she’d been in her room. The posters of the half naked women should have been a big tip off.

“You like?” Chloe laughed but there was a nervous edge to it. She shift from foot to foot a nervous habit she’d had since she was a child.

“It’s very...Chloe 2.0” Max replied with a smirk. It was terribly cute how Chloe seemed anxious to see of Max liked her room. It was more than the room, Max knew, it felt as if Chloe was waiting to see if Max liked who Chloe grew up to be, even if Chloe didn’t like herself, it was painfully obvious she wanted some type of approval from the other girl. “It suits you.”

Max looked around, she had spent dozens of hours in this room in the week that never was but at the time most of her attention had been focused on Chloe. She was noticing things she missed before or maybe they were new since Chloe actually cleaned her room. Like there was a picture of them on the wall at Max’s tenth birthday party. Chloe was smashing cake into a laughing Max’s face. There were considerably less flyers of Rachel Amber all over, they were now neatly stacked on the desk. The corner where the suitcase of empty beer bottles was now replaced with a short white pressboard bookshelf. A small loveseat had be arranged in front of the TV and bookcase.

“I cleared out a couple drawers and some room in my closet for your clothes so you don’t have to live out of your duffle bag.” Chloe opened the empty top dresser drawer.

“Thanks, that was cool of you.” It wasn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, a few empty drawers and closet space, but that Chloe would think about it, that she wanted to ensure Max was comfortable sharing a room touched Max. She gave Chloe a sincere smile. She knew that the girl Chloe had become after their week together in the other timeline was still there.

“Yeah, no biggie.” Chloe downplayed the gesture, looking down to hide her creeping embarrassment.

Without asking Chloe started unpacking Max’s clothes for her. Max felt self conscious letting Chloe put her clothes away, wondering if Chloe was finding her taste in fashion, or lack there of, lame. She really couldn’t do it herself though, her arm was tucked against her chest in the sling the doctor had given her with an immobilizer around her should to keep from moving it while it healed. Though she didn’t need two hands to put her underwear and socks in the drawer. She started grabbing them out of the bag and putting them in the drawer one at a time while Chloe hung up her shirts and pants. She silently cringed when Chloe pulled out her Hello Punk Kitty T-shirt and snickered.

 _Ugh, why do I have such lame taste in clothes? I need to find a style beyond graphic tees and jeans. My clothes basically say ‘Nothing to see here, move along.’_  It didn’t make a statement like Chloe with her punk aesthetic or Rachel’s rock style had. It had always suited Max before, she preferred to be in the background rather than grabbing attention but now she was feeling like maybe she didn’t want to be background noise anymore or at least as much.

“Well looks like Super Max has some super underwear!” Chloe grabbed the last pair of Max’s underwear out of the duffle bag waving them around, a huge smirk on her face, “But really, Supergirl? I would have pegged you as a Wonder Woman kinda girl myself.”

Max tried to grabbed her red and blue Supergirl Boyshorts from Chloe, who kept them high above Max’s head just out of reach. “Please, Wonder Woman is so obvious.”

“Well, that’s because she’s the shit, Max, she could totally kick Supergirl’s ass in a fight.” Chloe teased with mock seriousness, still waving the underwear around.

“Cereal? Supergirl would kick that Amazon’s butt from here to Metropolis and back!” Max stopped in her tracks, offended more by Chloe’s comment than the theft of her personal items. “Supergirl has super strength and breath that could freeze Wonder Woman.”

“Wonder Woman has a lot more experience than Supergirl and hello, her Lasso! She would break right out of any icy breath crap, lasso Supergirl and that’s it, game over. While evenly matched in a lot of areas, experience makes all the difference, Max.” Chloe smirked at Max, hitting her over the head with the Supergirl boyshorts. Max huffed, pretending to be a lot more annoyed than she really was, grabbed them and put them away in the drawer.

“Experience isn’t everything…” Max playfully grumbled, sitting down at Chloe’s desk while the other girl flopped on the bed.  She stared at the various flyers, papers and clutter, smiling to herself at some of the more colorful statements Chloe had written on the desktop.

“Well, I guess that depends on what you’re talking about...” Chloe wiggled her eyebrows at Max causing the other girl to blush. It wasn’t that Max was completely inexperienced but she knew the blue haired girl had a lot more experience in certain departments.

Max cursed the redness she felt creeping up her face, Chloe was a lot better at this game than she was but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t try to play.

“STDs?” Max blurted out, almost involuntarily, unable to hold a straight face at the dumbfounded look on Chloe’s face. She’d finally been able to make the older girl speechless. _Score one for me._ “I’d imagine that having a lot of experience in them wouldn’t be a good thing.”

“Why Maxine Caulfield, what would a sweet, innocent, little girl like you know about STDs?” Chloe teased putting a hand over her heart like she was offended while imitating her mom’s southern drawl.

“Only what I’ve learned in health class and seen on TV.” Max admitted, meeting Chloe’s eyes with a sly grin, “And maybe I’m not as sweet and innocent as you think.”

Chloe lightly kicked her foot out from the bed, tapping Max on the leg. “Yeah, right, look at you, Max, I even say the word sex and you turn bright red.”

Max rolled her eyes, desperately ignoring her face getting redder. The strap on her sling was annoying her, she adjusted it so it wasn’t digging into her shoulder so much, stalling maybe a tiny bit. “You’d be surprised.”

The older girl got up from the bed, moving to stand in front of Max, a dangerous smirk on her face with a mischievous glint in her blue eyes. “Oh yeah? Ok, Max, surprise me. I dare you to kiss me. I double dare you.”

Max’s heart sped up, as unsure this time as she was in the last timeline, was Chloe using this as a way to figure out her own feelings or was she just messing with Max? Was this the older girl’s way of making a move without making one? A way to give herself an out if Max rejected her, that she was only joking around? They had been spending a lot of time together while Max was in the hospital, reconnecting and trying to get back what they’d lost five years ago. Chloe had been there almost as much as Max’s parents. The awkwardness and subtle digs had subsided in the last couple days and grew into a comfortable, easy going friendship once more. It wasn’t all puppy dogs and rainbows but it was significantly better than when Max had first woken up.  

Chloe was still standing in front of Max with a cocky grin, her arms crossed as if she was sure she’d won this round but her eyes weren’t nearly as playful as her body language would suggest. Max took a deep breath, unconsciously licked her lips, grabbed Chloe's shirt with her good hand and pulled the taller girl down until their lips met. It was brief, barely a kiss but it was enough to send small electrical jolts through Max’s entire body, she could swear she felt her right arm and shoulder electrified with the rest of her body. She could taste cigarettes and spearmint gum on Chloe’s lips. She grinned triumphantly as Chloe jumped back, as if the electricity running through Max’s body when their lips connected extended to Chloe, shocking her, too.

“Um, consider me surprised.” Chloe stammered, looking slightly dazed before giving a small shake of her head. She sat down on the bed, eyeing Max with shock, confusion and disbelief. “Wow, ok maybe you’re not as innocent as you look. Damn, Max.”

Max smirked at Chloe even though her head was spinning, analyzing every move, every look and word Chloe made. Was it too soon? Was she freaked out? Did she like it? Was she grossed out? Chloe hadn’t run out of the room or even to the other side off the room, she was sitting across from Max, staring at her as if seeing her for the first time. She was fidgeting with her beanie, tucking her hair in it, under it. 

_Ok calm down, she’s not grossed out, you didn’t ruin this. Just play it off, don’t make it too big of a deal. Be cool, no big deal, don’t rush it, give her time to think about it._ Max had learned in the other timeline and even in this one, Chloe was still very much focused on Rachel and a bit slow when it came to allowing herself to acknowledge new feelings, new possibilities. It was frustrating at times because things seemed to be going so slow, the rebuilding process, gaining Chloe’s trust again. In the other timeline it happened so fast, in just a week but this time Max didn’t have her powers to share with Chloe, which helped solidify Chloe’s trust in her last time.

“See, told you, you’d be surprised.” Max taunted, acting much more confident than she felt.

“Yeah, you certainly did.” Chloe replied looking contemplatively, she leaned back, her eyes locked on the ceiling, “You’re full of surprises, Maximum.”

“Let’s go grab some dinner, I’m so ready for real food.” Max jumped up from the chair, needing to distract Chloe before she got lost in her head. Food was usually a pretty good distraction when it came to the blue haired girl.

“Yeah, I’m sure Joyce is cooking up a storm with all the Caulfields here.” Chloe agreed, slowly getting up herself before her eyes went wide with excitement, “I think she was even making another double chocolate cake!”

Max laughed as Chloe almost tripped over herself trying to get down the stairs, crisis averted for now she hoped.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok this is extra long because I'm going on vacation, I'll be back in a couple weeks with more but hopefully this is enough to hold you over until I get back. Not BETA'ed, barely reread as I wanted to get it up before I left tonight, so please forgive the mistakes.


	6. Under Pressure

_I see you and I'm so perplexed_  
_what was I thinking_  
_what will I think of next_  
_where can I hide_

 

The shadows grew long, casting the hallway in an eerie pattern of darkness and light. It was the time of day before people started turning lights on. There was enough light to see on your own but the shadows were dark enough to hide in. Victoria Chase walked fast, staying as much in the shadows as possible, a far cry from the way she would normally strut down the middle of halls, demanding attention, flanked on each side by her entourage. She had been avoiding people as much as possible since Nathan had gotten arrested. If she had to deal with one more person asking her what had happened, why Nathan would do something like that, did she know he had a gun and a hundred other stupid questions, she was going to lose it. The worst was the way conversations would stop when she walked into a room now or the looks people would give her, some filled with pity but most of them with unabashed curiosity. Victoria Chase was not the topic of rumors, she controlled the rumor mill at Blackwell, she was not the topic. The only type of gossip that was acceptable when referring to her was how fabulously talented and amazing she was. People could be jealous, that was more than acceptable but they would not be allowed to talk about her as if she was a freak show on display or even worse, with pity.

The afternoon Nathan was arrested, VIctoria was as shocked as everyone else, maybe even more so because he was her best friend and she had no clue that he had been that much on the edge. She couldn't stand that fake, wanna be hipster, Max but not enough to want her shot. That was taking it a bit far, in her opinion. That Nathan had shot someone wasn't even the weirdest thing that had happened that day either. After he had been arrested one of the cops had let Nathan use their private cell phone and Nathan had called her. He had been adamant that she get a few things out of his room before anyone was able to search it. That in itself still wasn't the weirdest part of the day, she had assumed he needed her to get rid of the drugs in his room and maybe some embarrassing porno's but no, the drugs were secondary to a box and the bag of stuff she had to retrieve. The photos had been the weirdest thing by far about that day. She knew Nathan was a bit unstable but the photos he had in his room of Rachel Amber sent chills down her spine, they made her question if she even knew her best friend after all. The girl was clearly out of it and even looked dead in more than a few. And Rachel wasn't the only subject of photos she found. There were some of that blue haired freak that hung out with Rachel and even a few of Kate, all the girls looked drugged and scared. Victoria couldn't get the haunted look they all held out of her mind but the ones of Rachel, looking like she was no longer in the land of the living were the ones that gave her nightmares. Along with the photos, there had been a burner cell phone, she hadn't been able to figure out the password yet to get into it, not sure if she even wanted to, afraid of what else she'd find out about her friend.

After dumping all the bottles of water in Nathan's mini fridge down the sink, another odd requested that made a lot more sense after seeing the pictures, Victoria had made sure to take the box filled with syringes, miscellaneous vials and pills along with the photos and cell phone with her. They were now in her room hidden in the back of her closet in a shoe box buried under a few dozen other boxes of shoes. She felt dirty having it all in her room, she didn't want to think to hard about how all of it pointed to her best friend having murdered at least one girl and drugged at least two others. She was smart enough to realize that by complying with Nathan's request, she'd just made herself an accessory to probable murder after the fact along with who knew what else fucked up shit Nathan had been mixed up in. If she had turned it all over to the police right away she might have been able to plead ignorance but she'd been holding onto it all now for almost three weeks. A large part of Victoria hated herself that she's had to think about it that long, that she hadn't turned it all right over as soon as she realized what it was.

The problem was, she couldn't do that to Nathan, he had serious issues, he needed help, not jail. Unfortunately, because of his family, he was mostly never going to receive the help he really needed. Victoria was a lot of things but she wasn't one to abandon a friend who needed help. Nathan was one sick puppy, there was no denying that, but she wouldn't be the one to turn on him. Nathan was a product of too many people turning on him, of expecting him to be something he wasn't and then punishing him when he couldn't be who they wanted.

The Chase and Prescott families went way back, long before even Victoria and Nathan had been born. Her father and Nathan's were old college roommates and had struck up a life long friendship. Her earliest memories were full of her and Nathan. He was more family to her than most of her own family was. Even though she was an only child, she had never felt like one, Nathan and his older sister, Kristine, had always been there. She had seen first hand the pressure and expectations placed on Nathan from a young age even as she watched him struggle more and more with a mental illness his parents refused to properly address beyond quick fixes and band-aids of medication.

This was the first time she had ever felt any type of conflict when it came to protecting Nathan. The knowledge of what she was pretty sure Nathan had done was weighing her down, throwing off her game. He needed help but she wasn't sure how to get him the help he needed, especially if he had progressed as far as she feared he had. Victoria Chase was conflicted and that was not a feeling she was use to. She was familiar with self doubt, insecurity brought on by the pressure her own family of artists but this, doubting that she was doing the right thing when it came to her best friend, that was completely alien.

Victoria had never liked Rachel Amber, she had tolerated her, but she didn't deserve to die, especially not in the manner she strongly suspected the missing girl had. Nathan had sounded panicked and out of control when he had called her, begging her to help him out.

" _Tori, I need you to get the stuff out of my room, destroy it, so no one will ever find it. They wouldn't understand. Don't look at it, get the box under my desk, the bag I have behind the couch and, and the photos. I have a stack of photos in my drawer, you have to get rid of it all. Dump all the water bottles in my fridge, don't look at anything, just get rid of it for good, it's not what it looks like, you have to believe me, just make sure it's all gone before anyone can search my room. And you have to take all the videos of Kate down, all of them, you have to make it disappear, Tori. Don't say anything to anyone, you have to help me. They'll get the wrong idea..."_

The way he had plead, in a way she hadn't heard Nathan beg in years, not since he was 8 and had broken an expensive vase his parents had paid a small fortune for and begged her to not tell anyone. Of course she looked at everything, how couldn't she? She had tried to tell herself it was so she knew what she had to protect Nathan from but she knew it was because how couldn't she? How couldn't she look at what had Nathan in a panic. She desperately wished now that she hadn't because she wasn't sure what to do with what she had seen. She couldn't destroy what she had found, as loyal as she was to Nathan, she couldn't bring herself to destroy the evidence.

' _Get the wrong idea? Jesus, Nathan, how could there be any other explanation, what the fuck did you do?'_ For the first time in her life, Victoria was genuinely afraid of Nathan instead of for him.

Getting the video of Kate taken down had been much easier and after a few well placed texts, she got the rumor mill to grind to a halt on that, it was much easier due to all anyone wanted to talk about was the shooting. But rationalizing what she had found in his room to herself was proving to be a much more difficult task.

At first, Victoria tried to explain it all away, that Nathan had paid Rachel Amber to take those pictures, that they were staged, that they were taken long before Rachel went missing, but the problem with being intelligent as well as having a great eye for photography meant she wasn't able to convince herself of any of those possibilities. Besides, that didn't explain the other photos she saw with Chloe and Kate. They all weren't phenomenal actors. She had seen genuine terror and fear in their faces along with intense rage in the ones with Chloe. No, these weren't staged, Nathan was mixed up in some fucked up shit and he'd dragged her into it right along with him.

Nathan pulling her into his crazy schemes was nothing new for Victoria. In the past she had mostly been a willing accomplish but this was universes away from helping him sneak liquor out of his parents extensive collection or covering for him when he'd taken his father's Bentley out for a drive when he was 14, hitting a ditch and denting the fender. Despite every erratic thing he'd done as he got older, like throwing a chair through the formal dining room's full length windows because there were onions on his dinner one night when he was 15 or the time he had pushed his Nanny down the stairs when he was 12 because she wouldn't let him stay up late, Victoria had never been afraid of him before. He never got that way with her, he never so much as raised a finger in her direction, there was a bond between them that seemed to stop his violent outbursts when it came to her and his sister. She thought she has seen Nathan at his worst but then seeing those photos, seeing the evidence, she realized she'd barely scratched the surface.

Victoria was torn between her lifelong loyalty to her best friend and her conscience, her sense of right from wrong. It was too late to hand the evidence over directly, even if she wanted to but that didn't mean she couldn't send it in anonymously, if she dared to go down that road. To do so would be to turn on the one person she had counted on her entire life, neither choice felt like a viable option. Victoria Chase was nothing if not meticulous, everything she did was well thought out, she wasn't one to act on impulse, each move, look, word was carefully calculated based on risk versus reward. It wasn't that she was uncaring, far from it, but in the world she had grown up in, everything was judged with a critical eye to find any flaw or fracture. To be found lacking in any way was a fatal flaw, not only in her family but in their social sphere. Victoria had learned how hard life could be if you were seen to be less than or imperfect in any way deemed important from watching how Nathan had been viewed and treated. His illness had shaped her almost as much as it defined him.

Would it be doing Nathan a mercy to turn over the evidence? Would he be able to get the help he needed? Doubtful, in the current prison system. She felt like the little boy in that horrible movie she had to watch when she was in the 5th grade, Old Yeller, when he had to put down his rabid dog. Was Nathan a rabid dog? She shuddered at the thought, there was no argument that Nathan had more issues than Vogue but she couldn't be responsible for getting him locked up for life, she couldn't live with herself. But if that was completely true then why couldn't she bring herself to destroy the very evidence that would all but guarantee Nathan would be locked up for probably the rest of his life?

This had been her state of mind for the last couple weeks, the constant back and forth, never ending cycle of what to do. The only thing she knew with any certainty was that she needed to get Nathan's things out of her room. Last week Courtney had been rummaging in Victoria's closet looking for a a pair of shoes to borrow, something they did all the time. Victoria had almost had a heart attack, practically pushing the other girl out of the closet and her room while yelling at her to stay out of her room unless she was there. It was only further proof that Victoria Chase was losing her shit. It was too stressful. She had to find a place to dump the evidence that wasn't her closet. Somewhere it wouldn't be discovered or inadvertently destroyed.

There weren't that many options in Arcadia Bay, even less that wasn't somehow tried to her or Nathan's family. Every place she had considered came with the risk of one or the other happening. The school basement was her first thought but quickly discarded, too many kids went down there to make out or Samuel could find it. He was always creeping around, that made the entire campus off limits. She considered the junkyard but too many people went there as well. Burying is seemed stupid and would almost guarantee it being destroyed. A safety deposit box was too easily traced right back to her. She considered a locker at the bus terminal but they only allowed those for so long before they cut the locks off. She was afraid to travel anywhere to get rid of it incase she was caught with it in her bag or anything. So after discarding dozens of possible places, she was still nowhere closer to getting it out of her closet which was quite unfortunate as she got a shudder and deep seeded feeling of dread anytime her eyes fell on her closet door.

On top of everything else, the Everyday Heroes contest had been postponed due to that stupid, hipster, Max Caulfield, getting in Nathan's way at the wrong time. Now, Mr. Jefferson barely looked at her, it was absurd, admittedly, he'd never crossed the line completely with her, there had been a few blurred moments of flirting but after everything happened with Nathan, it was as if she had developed some horrible case of acne the way he froze her out completely. He barely even acknowledging her in class. Victoria wanted to scream.

Finally, Victoria made it to her dorm room, casting a glare at the door across the hall from her's. _Fucking, Max Caulfield. She still hadn't come back to school, probably milking all the sympathy she could._

Victoria slammed her door then flopped down on her bed, as far from her closet as possible. She was mildly annoyed that she'd been able to make it across campus and into her room without Courtney or Taylor appearing. Even though she'd been trying to avoid everyone, they still should have been looking for her. It wasn't her fault that she was so stressed and acting like an irrational bitch for the last few weeks, that was no reason for them to be avoiding her more and more lately. They should understand how hard all of this was for Victoria and be there for her.

With a huff of frustration, Victoria carefully took off her expensive shoes, getting up to place them next to the dreaded closet. That's when she noticed that something was wrong, very very wrong. Her closet door was slightly opened, she pulled it open all the way and saw that all her shoe boxes were strewn about, it looked like a mini tornado had gone through her closet as boxes were opened, shoes thrown around like the aftermath of a Black Friday sale at Barney's. Victoria dropped to her knees, panic taking over any rational thought as she threw shoes and boxes out of the closet behind her.

_Fuck. Nononono fuck, fuck fuck fuck fuck, fucketty FUUUUUUCKKKKKK!_

She grabbed the box she'd put Nathan's stuff in, it felt surprisingly light. She let out a scream of rage and frustration as she tore the lid off, only finding a typed note where all the evidence of Nathan's wrong doings once were.

" _Nathan's been a very bad boy._

_You've been a very bad girl._

_Bad children will be punished."_

Well at least she didn't have to worry about what to do with it, now she had much bigger things to worry about, like who had it and what it would take to get it back.

"FUCK!"

* * *

Max bit her bottom lip, concentrating with everything she had to squeeze the little foam ball in her right hand. Her fingers twitched as they finally closed around the round object. There was only a whisper of any pressure in the grip but that she'd been able to get her fingers to move at all felt like a miracle to her.

"Great job, Max, much better than earlier." Grace, her Physical Therapist, said encouragingly. Grace was in her late twenties with long, deep auburn hair she kept pulled back in a ponytail with brown eyes. She was what Max would consider more cute than pretty, her makeup was light, some eyeliner, mascara and lip gloss. This was Max's third PT session with her and had found her to be cheerful and encouraging each time. When Max got frustrated, the older woman had a way to make everything sound positive, cheering Max up quickly.

Max allowed herself a small smile. They had started with this exercise at the beginning of her session and she had barely been able to get her fingers to move more than a few centimeters before they would start shaking, refusing to go any further. Then Grace had done a few light stretching exercises with Max's elbow and wrist, careful to avoid moving her shoulder. After doing those, she had Max try to grip the ball again, with much better results.

Grace took the ball from Max and started massaging her arm, starting with with her elbow and moving down, hitting each muscles down to her fingertips.

"Way to go, Max!" Chloe cheered from the chair she was more sprawled over than sitting in, as she played some game on her phone. She looked up and flashed a smile at Max before looking down again, frantically tapping on her screen.

Max could only roll her eyes. She had told Chloe she didn't need to come in, she could pick her up afterwards but Chloe had insisted on sitting in on every session. The first session Grace had shown Chloe how to help Max with some of the exercises they wanted her to do every day, it surprised Max how serious the blue haired girl had been taking Max's physical therapy. She was the one insisting every morning after breakfast that they go through the routine Grace had shown them to help Max recover the use of her hand and arm. It was only the end of the first week so Grace had them working on Max's fingers, wrist and limited elbow movement. Max was improving her dexterity as more feeling was coming back to her, she could feel most of her arm up to her elbow, though it was more of a tingle in her forearm. Her doctor and Grace kept telling her it was great progress, much faster than they originally thought but it still wasn't fast enough for Max.

It was getting harder and harder to spend so much time with Chloe and not tell her about her rewind power, about Rachel Amber, about Jefferson, about everything. Things were further complicated by how much more comfortable they were getting with each other. Max knew the longer she waited the more it would bother Chloe that she hadn't told her sooner. Things had finally settled into a comfortable routine between them.

Max had also noticed Chloe seemed to be a bit more flirty since the kiss. They had never talked about it again but there were times when Max was almost positive Chloe was going to bring it up or make some smart ass comment but it never happened. At first Max worried that she'd freaked Chloe out because it was extremely out of character for Chloe to not tease her.

Her fears were mostly laid to rest the first night when Chloe insisted they could both sleep in her bed. She couldn't have been too freaked out if she didn't mind sharing a bed with Max. Though they hadn't gotten got much sleep at first. Max couldn't seem to find a position she was comfortable in and Chloe was paranoid she would roll over in the night and hurt Max.

_Max shifted in the bed for what felt like the hundredth time that night, no matter how she tried to lay, she couldn't find the right position to sleep in that wouldn't result in her rolling onto her shoulder. Her mind running at top speed wasn't helping much either. It was her first night out of the hospital but she could already see dozens of differences between this timeline and the last one, some small and others huge. It weighed on her a lot that she couldn't figure out why there was were so many differences. She knew that there would be some changes if she was shot instead of Chloe but that didn't account for the unrelated changes, or what she assumed to be unrelated._

_Case in point, Chloe, the older girl hadn't talked about Rachel Amber nearly as much in this timeline than she had in last one. At least not to Max. She also seemed, softer, more careful with Max compared to the last timeline. Max could rationalize that it was due to her being shot and saving her life but it was still different, the way Max would catch her looking at her sometimes or the way that she refused to leave Max's side, even going so far as to sleep at the hospital a few nights until Max threatened to have her barred from her room because she was starting to smell a bit ripe._

_It was too much to hope that Chloe was looking at her the way Max knew she looked at Chloe when she thought the blue haired punk wouldn't notice. There was still the little annoying voice in her head that kept telling her that a big part of Chloe falling for her in the last timeline was because of her powers, Max didn't know if Chloe would ever fall for plain, not so super Max._

" _Ok, this is hella ridiculous." Chloe sighed, sitting up, rubbing her eyes._

_The light from the street light outside her window casted her in silhouette, for the thousandth time Max wished she had her camera so she could take a picture, the contrast of the light and dark outlining Chloe was perfect. All night since they'd gone to bed, Max had been struggling to stay on her side, in fear of touching Chloe and freaking the other girl out even more after the kiss from earlier._

" _Alright, Hippie, sit up for a minute." Chloe said as she moved her pillow and helped Max sit up. "Ok, come here."_

_Chloe laid back down, her right arm outstretched where Max's head had been. She put Max's pillow on top of her arm, over her own shoulder as she gently coaxed Max back down so that the smaller girl was snuggled into her side. Max laid down hesitantly as Chloe reached over and put another pillow behind Max's back, giving Max a face full of her breasts in the process. Max was grateful for the darkness so Chloe couldn't see her blushing, her face felt like it was ready to burst into flames. Chloe laid back down on her back, pulling Max closer against her side._

" _Are you sure this is ok? Are you comfortable?" Max asked quietly, her face only inches away from Chloe's breast. She could feel every breath the other girl took. It was more out of politeness than anything, Max didn't want to move, it was the most comfortable she'd been since she'd woken up in the hospital. Chloe was warm and they fit perfectly in their current position._

" _Yeah, I can't roll on you and hurt your shoulder if you're laying on my arm and this way you can lean against me to keep from rolling onto your shoulder." Chloe reasoned seeming oblivious to the effect her actions were causing the younger girl. "Night, Maxi-pad."_

" _Night, Tampon." Max shot back, Chloe knew how much she hated it when she called her that, almost as much as she hated being called Maxine._

" _Ok, point taken." Chloe laughed as she lightly tickled Max, conscious of the injured girl's shoulder. Her tickling soon turned into soft caresses as she gently rubbed circles on Max's back with her fingertips._

_Max struggled to keep from moaning out loud, that electric feel was back everywhere Chloe touched her, it was bad enough she had shuddered. Feeling brave in the dark and unable to stop herself, Max leaned her head up and kissed Chloe right above her jaw line, on the lower part of her cheek. It was a quick peck, barely a beat of Max's lips pressed against Chloe's skin but enough for Max's lips to feel electrified._

" _Night, Chlo." Max said cuddling back into Chloe's side again. Chloe's fingers stopped for a second, as if stunned but then started their lazy circles on Max's back again. Max smiled, feeling safer and happier than she had felt in weeks. She was quickly asleep. When she woke in the morning, Chloe's head was resting on top of hers. It had become part of their nightly routine, Max sleeping cuddled into Chloe's side with the older girl's arm around her. Max wasn't gonna lie, it was definitely her favorite part of their routine._

"Ok, Max, that's it for today, keep doing those exercises over the weekend and I'll see you on Monday." Grace said after she finished massaging Max's arm, pulling the younger girl out of her thoughts. "Now, Chloe, starting tonight, I need you to massage Max's fingers, hand and arm up to her elbow after she does her exercises, this is going to help get more oxygen to the muscles and the blood circulating more to help get the feeling back, alright?"

"Yeah, no problem." Chloe said as she stood up, slipping her phone back in her pocket. She grabbed Max's jacket, helping her into it.

"Do you know when I'll be able to go back to school?" Max asked. There wasn't a real urgency, she'd been able to keep up with most of her classes between Warren and Kate helping her but the sooner she was able to get back to school, the sooner she'd be able to figure out what to do about the Jefferson situation. She needed to see how he was behaving with her own eyes. It was hard to try and question Kate without drawing any suspicious from her. She wasn't looking forward to all the attention, the stares, whispers and questions she'd get, she hated being the center of attention but she'd more than willingly put up with it if it helped her figure out how to make sure Jefferson never hurt another girl. That both he and Nathan paid for what happened to Kate and Rachel.

Max failed to notice the annoyed look that flashed across Chloe's face when she had asked about going back to school.

"If your recovery keeps going this well I would think in a week you could go back but we'll have to talk to your doctor as well. I know they were planning another surgery for your shoulder so he might want you to hold off until after that. I'll see what he says and we can talk more about it at your next appointment." Grace replied making a few notes in Max's file, "In the meantime, keep doing your exercises twice a day and get those muscles massaged."

"She will, I'll make sure of it." Chloe answered shooting Max a smirk. "See ya, Monday."

"Yeah, see you Monday." Max added as she headed for the door Chloe was already holding open for her.

They walked out of the office building to the parking lot across the street where Chloe's beat up truck was parked.

"Feel like going to Two Whales for lunch?" Chloe asked, unlocking the truck as she stood behind Max to make sure she didn't fall climbing in.

"Yeah, I could eat." Max said, climbing into the truck, she'd gotten a lot better getting in herself. The first few days Chloe had to help her but now Max felt comfortable enough with pulling herself up without falling. It was yet another part of their routine that they had quickly settled into. They went to the diner after Max's PT if Joyce was working or back to Chloe's if Joyce wasn't. Max wasn't sure how she'd be able to go back to cafeteria food after this.

The drive to the diner was quiet, as Max fiddled with the radio. Chloe drove with her elbow on the rolled down window, chin propped on her palm. Max watched the afternoon light filter through the blue and strawberry blond strands of Chloe's hair, the light making her blue eyes seem to shine brighter than normally. It really did take her breath away how beautiful Chloe was. It broke her heart to know that the peaceful look she was catching on Chloe's face more and more lately would be shattered the moment she learned about Rachel's fate.

Max had been going over different ways for the past week to get justice for Rachel. Her dreams were troubled thinking about her being buried, alone in the junk yard while Jefferson walked around as if nothing was wrong and Nathan was hiding behind his team of attorney's. It wasn't right, she had to fix it.

"You alright over there?" Chloe asked, glancing at Max with concern when they stopped at a red light.

"Yeah, just thinking about things, you know. I have to meet with Sebastian's partner tomorrow about the civil suit and I'm really nervous about Nathan's arraignment next week." Max was really worried about those things, so she wasn't exactly lying to Chloe.

"Max, even with all their money, there is no way they are going to give him bail, he brought a gun to school and shot you. They can't be that stupid. With all the Prescott money, his parents would have him halfway around the world the same day they granted him bail, the court has to know that." Chloe reached over, giving Max's hand a reassuring squeeze.

Max gave her a grateful smile, all the while feeling like a major jerk due to everything she was hiding from Chloe.

They pulled into the parking lot. Chloe jumped out as soon as she parked the truck, going around to Max's side to help her out. While Max had mastered how to get into the truck without falling on her face, getting out was a different story. She couldn't help it, she was short and the truck was tall. Chloe thought it was hilarious, of course, but kept her snickering down to a minimum.

They both grabbed menu's as they sat down in their favorite booth, waving to Joyce who was pouring a couple people at the counter some more coffee.

"I didn't realize you were in such a hurry to get back to school." Chloe said flippantly, refusing to meet Max's eyes as she stared at the menu she knew word for word. "Aren't I entertaining enough for you?"

"It's not that," Max started, picking up on the hurt in Chloe's voice, no matter how much the older girl tried to hide it. "I don't want to get too far behind and have to repeat the semester. Too bad I couldn't bring you to school with me, you are pretty entertaining. I'm a big fan of your 'That's what she said' jokes."

Chloe rolled her eyes, smirking at Max, "I can't help it if you walk right into them."

"No, you're just really good at turning anything into an innuendo. Seriously, who knew Toy Story could be so dirty, you've forever ruined for me." Max shook her head sadly, looking down to hide her smile.

"Oh no, you can't pull that naive and innocent shit with me anymore, Maxillion, I know your dirty little secret." Chloe teased as she tapped foot under the table with her own.

"Yeah, you caught me, I totally want Warren." Max teased back though her heart was racing, worried she'd been too obvious about her feelings for the girl sitting across from her, that Chloe had figured it out.

"Whatever, you know you want this." Chloe waved a hand over herself, her laugh had a slight edge to it, she was smiling but her eyes were intently watching Max's reaction.

"Hey, girls, how was PT today, Max?" Joyce asked as she came up to their booth, two drinks already in her hands. She set them down as she fondly smiled at her daughter and Max.

Grateful for the well timed interruption, Max turned to face Joyce, giving her full attention to Chloe's mom. "Great! I was able to actually hold the ball today."

"That's wonderful, darling." Joyce beamed as she pulled out her order pad.

"Yeah, all of Chloe's help is really making a difference. They said I might be able to go back to school in a week."

"That is great news, Max. I guess lunch is on me than today to celebrate." Joyce would never tell her daughter but she was incredibly proud of how responsible she'd been with taking care of Max, taking her to all of her appointments, making sure Max did all her exercises and took her meds at the right times. It warmed her heart to see the change in her daughter as well. Chloe was smiling a lot more these days, arguing a lot less, making an effort. She had even mentioned getting her GED just the other morning. It was hard to believe the difference in only two weeks. Maybe Max saving her life had made her really think about her life and what to do with it. She only hoped it would continue even as Max got better and would need to rely on her less.

"Score." Chloe cheered from her seat. Her leg was bouncing up and down, she was always in motion, bouncing her leg, tapping her fingers, shifting around. The only times Max had seen Chloe be relatively still was when she was stoned and when they were going to sleep. And even then she was still usually moving around, tapping her foot or rubbing Max's back at night.

"So what can I get you girls today?" Joyce asked. They both ordered a cheeseburger and fries. She wrote their orders down and went back to the kitchen.

Max looked at the other people in the diner, searching for a different topic of conversation then the one they'd been on before Joyce had thankfully interrupted them. She wasn't ready to have that conversation with Chloe, not even joking around, she was sure the other girl would see how much Max was not joking. Chloe had always been better than anyone else at reading Max's face since they were kids.

Her eyes fell on a man sitting at the counter, he had messy sandy blond hair and skin that look as tough as leather, making his age hard to determine but Max guessed probably in his late 40s. He was clearly a fisherman, or use to be one before the fishing around Arcadia Bay had started dying down. He had on a long sleeved shirt with a short sleeved work shirt on over it. His dark brown pants were the thick material that fisherman around there favored. He was pouring something from a flask into his coffee.

Max turned her eyes back to Chloe and caught the other girl openly staring at her. She self consciously wiped her mouth. Chloe didn't look away, even after being caught staring she continued to stare at Max, her eyes searching for something within Max's eyes.

"Ah, what?" Max finally croaked out, her body unusually warming up under Chloe's piercing stare.

"I can't get over how grown up you are now, Caulfield." Chloe simply stated. She looked like she was trying to solve a puzzle, she quirked one eyebrow at Max. "I mean, obviously, I knew you had to get older but I still can't get over that the geeky little kid who left here 5 years ago grew up to be this geeky almost adult person."

Max took a drink to try and hide the blush that was creeping up her cheeks. It might not have sounded like a compliment to anyone who overheard Chloe but the way she said, Max knew she meant a lot more, though she was still confused. Was Chloe seriously flirting with her or just messing around with her? It was so hard to tell with Chloe.

"Uh, thanks?." Max stammered out between drinks. She rolled her eyes. _Could I be anymore lame? I could control time for fucks sake, so why does Chloe seem to reduce me to a bumbling idiot at times?_

Chloe laughed, tossing a sugar packet at Max, "I'm just saying, puberty wasn't horrible to you. Have you even seen Becky Cameron? Oh man, puberty was not good to her. She still has the worst case of zits ever. Serves her right for being such a bitch when we were kids."

Max gave Chloe a disapproving look, it wasn't nice to bully someone over something they couldn't control and acne was one of those things. Though, internally Max was a little pleased. Becky had made Max's life hell in the 4th grade, bullying her for being the smallest and shyest kid in class. Chloe had even gotten into trouble once for defending Max when Becky had pushed her. Chloe's class had been outside for gym while Max's grade had been outside for recess. Max was waiting to get a swing when Becky started giving her a hard time and pushed her down. Chloe had run off the softball field, right into the playground area and punched Becky in the face, knocking her to the ground, then jumped on her and continued to hit her, yelling that no one messed with Max. The gym teacher pulled Chloe off the other girl who was now crying on the ground. Chloe had gotten suspended for two days but her parents never punished her for it. They did tell her that violence wasn't always the answer but sometimes bullies needed a learn a lesson before they stopped. Max's parents took both the girls out for ice cream.

"I haven't seen anyone really that we grew up with. I think I left campus maybe twice before all of this." When Max had gotten to Blackwell she so was terrified she'd run into Chloe in town that she hadn't wanted to leave the campus, not until she knew what she was going to say to the other girl. It appeared as if fate or whatever was out there clearly had other ideas.

"No big loss, most of them grew up to be a bunch of jack asses. Well, except for Abby, but she got knocked up by Brian Longren a couple years ago and dropped out of school. Their baby is adorable, a little boy. She's living with her grandparents over in Grovers."

Abby had been both Max and Chloe's friend even though she was in Chloe's grade. She never made Max feel like a baby because she was younger. Max remember her as a sweet girl who would talk a lot about horses and boys. It was sad she'd had a child so young but hopefully she was happy.

"Here you go, girls." Joyce set their plates down. "Oh, Max, I almost forgot, you got a registered letter today at the house. I put it on Chloe's desk for you."

"Thanks." Max wondered who would be sending her a registered letter to Chloe's house, not many people knew was staying there, and anyone who did would more than likely have called her before going through the trouble of sending her a letter.

A couple kids came in that Max recognized from Blackwell, Justin and his friend, Trevor. Max could swear she smelled weed when they walked in. She laughed to herself, imagining Justin was like the Pigpen character from Charlie Brown, only he was followed around by a cloud of smoke instead of dirt.

"I'll see you girl's at home later." Joyce called over her shoulder, already headed over to the booth the boys had sat at.

"Who do you think sent you a registered letter?" Chloe said, her mouth full of fries. She was attacking her food with her usual gusto, leaving no frie behind.

"No clue." Max shrugged with her good shoulder. She dipped her fries in some ketchup. When she had eaten all her fries she finally took a bite out of her cheeseburger.

"Weird, maybe you've won some contest or something. My Aunt got a registered letter once from some contest she had forgotten she'd entered. She had won a free vacation to Florida. She thought it was a scam when they tried calling her so they sent her a registred letter. Wouldn't it be great to get out of here, go somewhere fun. Maybe not Florida, too many alligators and weird stuff in those swamps but somewhere that isn't Arcadia Bay." Chloe had a wistful look on her face as she stared out the window for a moment, her mind on all the places she'd rather be than in Arcadia Bay.

"Doubtful, I haven't entered any contests lately. But, hey, this summer after school's out, you and I could go somewhere for awhile. Maybe a road trip or something." Max suggested, knowing how much Chloe wanted out of Arcadia Bay but she felt a little strange offering to go with Chloe. It had felt like a Rachel and Chloe thing in the last timeline. She wasn't sure how Chloe would feel about it now, going somewhere with Max instead.

"Yeah, maybe, if I can find a job or something to save up and payback the money I owe." The way Chloe said it, it sounded like she thought she'd still never get out of Arcadia Bay.

"We'll figure it out, Chloe." Max said, wanting to break the heaviness that had settled around the older girl. "And, hey, if Sebastian's partner is half as good as Sebastian is, then maybe the Prescott will be paying for it."

"Wouldn't that be a kick in the ass, their money paying for us to travel around while Nathan sits in prison." An amused Chloe replied, her spirits already lifted.

"Exactly, don't worry, Chlo, it'll work out. I can take pictures of all the dumpy tourist traps and you can get us kicked out of them." Max laughed, no matter what, she was going to make sure that Chloe got out of Arcadia Bay, even if it was only for a trip, she wasn't going to let Chloe feel trapped there anymore.

"We'll be like land pirates, the scourge of the open road." Chloe excitedly said, getting more into the idea.

"And crappy tourist traps!"

"And crappy tourist traps!" Chloe added with a chuckle, raising a few french fries up in the air.

Forgetting to eat her food, Max watched Chloe's face light up as she laughed, the dark mood from moments ago forgotten about. It was one of her favorite sights, when Chloe was unguarded and not acting cocky, when she was purely being Chloe. Her blue eyes would light up like the bluest skies in summer and her smile reached her eyes. Puberty had been pretty damn great to Chloe Price in Max's opinion.

"You done already? You gonna finish that?" Chloe asked, noticing half a cheeseburger on Max's plate. She reached over and grabbed it before Max could respond and shoved half of it in her mouth. Luckily, Max was finished, her chest was starting to hurt along with her shoulder, which was a good thing the doctor's had told her, it meant that she was starting to get feeling back.

After Chloe had finished hers and Max's food, they started walking out of the diner. Chloe slowed down by Justin and Trevor's booth. Justin was showing Trevor some trick, using a frie as a skateboard as he ran it along the edge of his plate before popping it in the air and spinning it around to land on top of the table.

"Yo, Justin." Chloe called, sending the skater a head nod.

"Yo, Chloe. Oh shit, hey, Max, how ya doin?" Justin squinted, his eyes were bloodshot. As usual, Justin was totally stoned.

"I'm doing alright." Max answered. She liked Justin but she was feeling uncomfortable, besides Kate and Warren, him and Trevor were the first Blackwell student's she'd seen since the shooting. She wasn't feeling in the mood to go over everything, her shoulder was starting to throb, it felt like there was some type of pressure pushing at it that was sending shockwaves of pins and needles down her arm.

"That was some crazy bullshit Prescott pulled. If I ever see him, I'm so gonna kick his ass, no one hurts my friends!" the skater boy exclaimed, well as much as he could in his slow, stoned speech but Max figured that was pretty much as excited as Justin could sound in his current state.

"Yeah, me too. That little poser fuck is gonna get what's coming to him. Hopefully, some big ass dude has already made him his bitch." Trevor said, his speech as slow and stoned sounding as Justin's. He slumped back in his seat, as if talking had worn him out.

"Thanks, guys." Max said, oddly touched that they both had offered to kick Nathan's ass for her. She hadn't realized that they even knew who she was really. It was sweet in misguided, boy kinda way.

Justin pulled his hat down more to block out the sun that was shining through the window next to him. "Yeah, no problem. Anyone gives you any shit, you let us know, Max. We've got your back."

"Thanks." Max rubbed her arm, trying to ease the pain she was feeling. It was starting to hurt more as the pressure in her shoulder kept building up.

"Yeah, thanks again, guys, we gotta get going, see ya around." Chloe waved to both the skaters as her and Max left.

"Are you alright?" Chloe asked with concern as soon as they were out in the parking lot. Max had a pained look on her face and kept rubbing at her arm. She'd barely complained about any pain so far but maybe they had overworked her arm muscles with the exercises as home and then the physical therapy earlier.

"Not really, I think I need to take a pain med and lay down for a while." Max winced as another wave shot down her arm.

Chloe unlocked the truck and helped Max up, she ignored the weak protests from the smaller girl that she could do it herself.

Max tried to hide how much pain she was really in, it almost felt as if her shoulder was going to pop out of the socket or something. She was started to get scared, she'd never felt anything like this in her life. Was it normal for her type of injury? None of her doctors had mentioned this type of pain, they had said she might feel some discomfort and pain as the swelling went down and the nerves started working again but nothing about sharp pains all down along her arm from her shoulder to her fingertips.

Chloe kept casting concerned looks over at Max as she drove, not liking what she was seeing as the smaller girl was sweating and gritting her teeth. "Should I take you to the hospital?"

Max shook her head, she felt beads of sweat breaking out on her forehead as her fingers were twitching "No, just need to take some pain meds."

"Are you sure, you don't look so hot, Max?" Chloe's concern was growing by the second, Max was pale and her body was starting to shake.

"No, I'll be fine.." Max said through clenched teeth, fighting the panic that was building up along with the pain. This didn't feel like anything ordinary to her, the way her shoulder and arm felt like they were under pressure, like something was trying to push out of her arm, every nerve ending on fire. She wanted to get home, take a pain pill and calm down. Hopefully, she'd be fine once she was able to relax, the feeling and pain would subside.

The streets of Arcadia Bay zoomed past them as Chloe sped up to get them home. Pulling into her driveway, Chloe was pulling the key out of the ignition at the same time she was opening her door, rushing around to help Max out of the truck.

Max stumbled out of the truck, Chloe's steady arms around her waist the only thing that kept her from falling on the pavement. The taller girl, half carried Max into the house, being as careful as possible.

"Almost there, Max, it's alright. I'm going to go grab your meds. You're going to be alright." She took Max over to the couch, laying the smaller girl down carefully before running upstairs to get her pain meds.

The room felt like it was closing in on her as soon as Chloe had placed her on the couch. Something in Max, some internal feeling, was telling her that she needed to be doing something, that laying down was not the answer. Only, Max didn't know what she was suppose to be doing, how she was suppose to stop what was happening. Her head was pounding when it finally dawned on her, the familiarity of it hit her. This was how she felt whenever she'd had a Storm vision, with the new added bonus of her arm now hurting as well. _Fuck, what is going on, I haven't had a vision, is the power still there? Is there a new storm coming?_

Max clutched her head as Chloe came over with a glass of water and one of her pain pills.

"OK, careful, Max, don't choke, it's alright." Chloe coaxed as she helped Max, she was really starting to regret not taking Max to the hospital. Max was pale and shaking, her fingers on her right hand twitching as Max tried to bring the pill to her mouth. She was half slumped over, unable to lay down due to her pain in her head. Chloe held the cup up to her mouth, helping her take a drink to wash the pill down. "Are you sure we shouldn't be on our way to the hospital?"

Max heard Chloe's question but her voice sounded far away, like Max was hearing it underwater. Max rolled off the couch, landing on her knees as she clutched her head with her good hand. "No, I just…"

"Max, Max!" Chloe was on the floor, next to Max, holding her, rubbing her back, gently rocking her, doing anything she could to try and comfort the other girl who was clearly in a lot of pain. To say she was scared would be the understatement of the year. There was a persistent pounding coming from somewhere, Chloe wasn't sure if it has her heart or what but it wouldn't stop.

Through the haze and the pain, Max heard the pounding as well, everything seemed to slow down for her as the front door flew open. She heard it bang against the wall as four armed police officers came down the hall and into the livingroom. Max could see them in detail, three men and a woman. Two of the men had their guns drawn, pointed at her and Chloe. The woman was grabbing a pair of handcuffs while the fourth cop was pulling out a taser. _Why are they here? What the fuck is going on?_

Two moved over towards them, grabbing Chloe to separate her from Max. They were yelling but Max couldn't tell what they were saying, everything was happening all at once. Time went back to regular speed.

"Chloe Price, you're under arrest. Do not resist!" The larger of the male cops yelled at Chloe as he threw her to the ground.

"Get the fuck off me, you asshole. Max, are you ok? You better not fucking touch her." Chloe growled as she struggled against the bigger man trying to subdue her.

Max's head felt like it was about to explode. She watched Chloe struggled against the police, kicking out against the larger one as a second cop came to help subdue her. The second cop had thrown himself over the top half of Chloe, struggling to get her in a headlock. Chloe cried out in pain as one of them pressed a knee into her stomach.

"Stop fucking fighting! We will taze your ass if you don't settle down right now." The third cop yelled, holding his taser out in front of him.

"No! Stop! You're hurting her!" Max yelled, her head and arm felt like they were both close to exploding when she felt a popping sensation in her head, like when your ears popped when you were on a plane from the pressure change.

Everything stopped as Max's hand, while not fully outstretched was as outstretched as she could get it. Max looked at her arm in shock, the pain in her head was gone, the pressure and pain in her shoulder was gone, like a valve had been pulled that released all the built up pressure.

Time started rewinding itself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back from vacation with a long chapter for you all. I'm not sure how I feel about it, it's feeling a bit flat to me for some reason. Let me know your thoughts!


	7. Land of Confusion and Boredom

_There is nothing you can do_  
_That I have not already done to myself_  
_Oh no, there is nothing you can do  
_ _That I have not already done to myself_

Max watched, fascinated, on the verge of giddy, as the police got up off Chloe, walked backwards down the hall, Chloe was holding her, then standing up, walking backwards from the kitchen, then backwards up the stairs. Max stopped the rewind, laughing out loud as she climbed back on the couch where Chloe had originally left her. Her power was still there, even though she had said she never wanted to use it again, she didn't realize how much she missed it, had come to rely on it. It was no coincidence that the pressure she'd felt had gone away as soon as she had used her power. As far as Max could tell it seemed like it had built up, like water behind a dam that if it wasn't released it would burst through.

She wanted to dance with joy, or at least enthusiastically bob her head as she wasn't much of a dancer, but the sentiment was there. She felt better than she had in a long time. The stabbing pains she had felt getting progressively worse were gone as if they had never been there. Not even a dull ache remained. The room look exactly as it had before the cops had busted in, without the pounding in her heard, everything was eerily silent except for the sound of Chloe rummaging around frantically in her room above.

_Oh fuck, the cops are on their way here. I have to tell Chloe. Shit, how am I going to explain this to her? She's going to think I'm crazy._

Chloe came flying down the stairs, her boots pounding down the wooden steps, panic clear in her voice, "It's gonna be alright, Max, I'm gonna grab some water. Hang in there."

"Chloe, wait, I'm alright." Max called out as Chloe rounded the corner into the living room. Max was standing up, trying to stop the older girl's frantic movements.

"Max?" Chloe asked, confused, her eyebrows knitted up, only moments ago Max had been writhing around, shaking and in tears with pain and now she was standing there...smiling? It didn't make any sense to her, there was no way Max was faking it, the younger girl had never been a very good liar but how was it possible she feeling better all of a sudden?

"We don't have much time." Max inwardly rolled her eyes, she had all the time in the world again but she only had a very short time to warn Chloe about what was going to happen in the next few minutes. A feat that would be a lot easier if the other girl didn't look so damn adorable when she was confused. "I need you to trust me and I promise I'll explain everything to you. But first I need you to be calm because you're not going to like what's about to happen."

"Max?" Chloe's mind was having trouble catching up, less than two minutes ago she was positive she was going to have to take Max to the hospital. Seriously, how was it possible that Max had recovered that quickly? She was still holding the pain pill in her outstretched hand, not sure what to do with it now that Max didn't appear to need it anymore. _What did she say about the cops? What the hell was happening?  
_  
Reaching out with her good arm, Max pulled Chloe over to the couch, taking the pill from her and putting it in her own pocket in case she needed it later. She didn't want Chloe to be caught with any pills on her when the cops came. She sat the taller girl down before sitting next to her, taking her hand in her own. She wished she had enough time to tell Chloe about her rewind, how she knew what was about to happen. Unfortunately, she didn't have the time, as laughable as that was now, to explain everything before the cops would be knocking on the door. She had to hope that they'd built their relationship up over the last couple weeks that Chloe would trust her on blind faith until she could explain. The air was heavy with unasked questions that would have to wait to be answered.

Chloe looked down at their entwined hands but didn't pull her's away, though this was eerily a similar position they had been sitting in when Max had broken the news that she was moving to Seattle 5 years previously. At least Max wasn't sobbing between every other word this time but still the look on Max's face, which had been smiling a moment ago was now about as serious as Chloe could remember it being. It felt like a boulder had settled in her stomach.

"I really need you to trust me because we only have a few minutes. The cops are going to be at the door any minute now. I need you to be chill and go with them peacefully. I'm going to call Sebastian and we'll get you out as soon as possible." Max calmly said, hoping Chloe would see the truth of everything she was saying reflected in her eyes. _Please believe me, please believe me._

Max saw the confusion in Chloe's own blue eyes, she still looked utterly confused, which was understandable, all things considered, but she needed her to catch up faster. Chloe stood up, letting go of Max's hand as she paced in front of the other girl.

"What are you talking about? Are you fucking with me? How are you suddenly alright? I saw you Max, you could barely stand you were in so much pain!" Chloe threw her hands in the air at each question before turning to look directly at Max, pointing a finger at her. Chloe was still having trouble catching up with the fact that Max seemed completely fine within a matter of seconds, never mind about the cops, that barely registered at the moment. Max shifted under Chloe's angry glare. Chloe tended to lash out when she didn't understand something that she thought she should.

"Chloe, focus, that's not the point, the point is the cops will be here any second now. I promise, I will explain everything to you but I really need you to just go with them, don't say a word. I'm fine now, please, I need you to trust me. And uh, empty anything out of your pockets you don't want the cops to find." Max plead, reaching out for the taller girl who was clearly agitated as she kept pacing in front of Max, running her hands through her hair, her ever present beanie on the floor where it had fallen in her rush to get Max on the couch when they'd first come in.

"Seriously? You want to see if I have any weed on me?"

"No, I don't want you to get caught with any weed on you, that would make things so much worse. I know you have weed on you because you rolled a joint right before lunch."

"Are you trying to steal my weed, is that what this is about? I'll totally get you stoned, Max, no need to..."

"Chloe, we don't have time for this, just give me your weed and your bowl."

"There's always time to discuss weed etiquette, Max."

"Chloe. Weed. Bowl. Now."

Chloe opened her mouth to protest as there was a loud knock on the front door.

"Arcadia Bay Police, open up." A loud gruff voice yelled through the closed door.

Turning to look at Max, eyes wide with surprise and shock, Chloe looked at the smaller girl as if she had grown a second head. Chloe quickly pulled out her baggie of weed and bowl, tossing them on the couch next to Max. "How the fuck did you know, Max? What the fuck is going on? Are you like psychic or something?"

Max shoved the weed and the bowl between the cushions then shot up to her feet, grabbing Chloe's hand yet again, needing to keep them tethered together, to reassure them both everything would be alright in the end. "Trust me, please, Chloe, I'll call Sebastian, I'll explain everything to you, I promise."

"Explain what, Max? How you knew the police were on their way? That you knew the cops were coming and didn't tell me until the last minute? Or explain what the fuck was going on with your head and arm that suddenly went away?" Chloe looked at Max, her heart still hadn't settled from the fear of seeing Max in the state she had been in only a few minutes before, now the cops were at her door and Max knew they were coming. She _knew_. It was too much for Chloe to take in, she thought she was going to drop from a heart attack. Had Max gotten a call in the short time Chloe had been upstairs? How long had she known without telling her? Was this planned between Max and Sebastian with Chloe kept out of the loop? None of it made sense to her.

"What? No, Chloe, it's not like that, please, I didn't know until… well, until we got here and saw them." Max figured it wasn't lying and she would explain it to Chloe, she'd make her understand after they got through this. "My shoulder, the pain, it was like a spasm but it's fine now. I swear I didn't know about the police until I saw them, I would never keep something like that from you."

_I would however keep what happened to Rachel, Nathan's involvement in it and Jefferson from you._ Max felt like the biggest hypocrite right than but didn't have time to dwell on it,deal with the cops at the door first, then she could feel like an asshole later.

The knocking got louder. "We know you're in there, you need to open the door or we'll open it for you."

Chloe dropped Max's hand then took a step towards the door, turned around and took a step away. She grab her temples, looking at Max through squinted eyes. "This is hella insane… What the _fuck_ do they want?"

Chloe didn't want to admit she was scared, to appear weak. The fear she felt bubbling up in her stomach was as an unwelcome guest as the cops at her door. Things were happening too fast for her, one minute she's convinced Max is gonna die and the next Max is completely fine and the cops are knocking at her door. And Max _knew_. That was what was tripping her up the most, how Max seemed so calm about it and knew, how had she seen them first? Maybe she looking out the window or something when they pulled up, Chloe was struggling to find a logical reason for everything happening all at once.

Leaning up, Max kissed Chloe's cheek, in the hope it might offer some comfort to the taller girl who was clearly losing her shit. "It's going to be alright, we knew this might happen. Please, Chloe, don't say a word and go with them peacefully."

Max squeezed Chloe's hand then walked towards the door, calling out, "I'm coming, one second."

Chloe stood there, not sure what to do, she put her hands in her pockets, then decided that it might look bad to the cops and took them out, she crossed her arms but thought that made her too confrontational. She shifted from foot to foot, stopping herself from pacing as her hands hung at her side, waiting for Max to open the door. She grabbed her beanie off the floor and pulled it on her head. It felt as if it took Max forever to walk down the short hallway. While still utterly and completely confused, she trusted Max, though they were going to have to have a serious talk after this.

The door creaked as Max opened it slowly, not wanting to startle the police on the porch, she had seen they were all too willing to use violence.

"Hello." Max opened the door, giving the police a friendly smile, despite the fact that she knew why they were there. She only opened the door enough to poke her head out, blocking the entrance with her body.

"Hi, I'm Officer Garland, these are Officers Kincaid and Walters. We need to speak to Chloe Price." the policewoman replied, she had one of those no nonsense kind of faces that tended to demand respect. Her black hair was pulled back into a tight bun, not a stray hair to be seen, her blue uniform was immaculately pressed, not a spot or wrinkle on it that Max saw, her mom would approve. Even the badge pinned to her shirt was polished so bright it reflected the light spilling from the open door.

"May I ask what this about?" Max wasn't exactly stalling for time but she was allowing Chloe a bit more time to pull herself together so she didn't look so sketched out when they came in.

"Can we come in?" Officer Garland held up a folded piece of paper, which Max assumed was a warrant, acting as if that gave her all the authority she needed, which in this case it did. Max didn't want to press her luck and hoped Chloe had taken the little extra time Max had gotten her to calm down some.

"Sure, come on in." Max stepped back, opening the door wide enough for the police to enter. She couldn't help giving Officer Walters a dirty look as he passed. He was the one who had kneeled on Chloe's stomach before the rewind.

"Chloe Price?" Officer Garland asked, behind her the other cops were watching every move Chloe and Max made, hands on their holsters. It was completely ridiculous and overkill as far as Max was concern, what could two unarmed girls do against three cops?

Chloe was leaning up against the back of the couch, arms lazily hanging on the back of the faded beige cushions, looking unconcerned about a room full of cops asking for her. She brought her eyes slowly up as she stood, giving the cops a once over, sizing up the situation, a bit impressed they had sent three cops just to pick her up. To anyone who didn't know her, she looked the picture of unconcerned but Max could see the way she was worrying her lower lip, one of her telltale signs that she was nervous. This wasn't Chloe's first run in with Arcadia Bay's finest but it was the first time they're come to her house so serious looking. Despite her calm exterior, Chloe's heart was doing double time in her chest, convinced everyone could hear it beating like a techno song.

"The one and only." Chloe said smirking, keeping her hands at her sides in full view. Max rushed over to Chloe, taking the taller girl's hand in her own to offer support. Chloe winked down at Max, playing it cool. Max wasn't sure if the other girl's bravado was for her benefit or Max's. Probably a little of both.

"We need you to come with us." Officer Garland's tone made it clear it wasn't up for debate. She reached for the handcuffs on her belt. It seemed as if the two males cops were there for backup but this was all Officer Garland's show. Though she knew it was coming, Max couldn't help the alarm that shook her small frame as she saw the cuffs coming out.

"Oh? Why's that?" Chloe asked, eyes narrowing out of instinct when it came to anyone in authority telling her what to do. Her jaw jutting forward in a small sign of defiance. Max squeezing her hand was the only thing that kept her from pushing it any further.

"We're arresting you for blackmail, malicious threats and unpaid parking tickets." Chloe snorted at the last one, seriously, they were going to toss in her parking tickets with charges that could very well be felonies? Officer Garland glared at Chloe, pulling her handcuffs out completely, reaching towards the blue haired girl "I assure you there is nothing funny about this situation, Ms. Price, you are in some serious trouble."

_I could think about a hundred better ways to use those cuffs._ Chloe had the sense to stop the thought from actually coming out of her mouth, but only barely. The smirk never leaving her face, Chloe's hand slipped out of Max's as she held her hands out in front of her. She knew the drill, better to make it easy so they wouldn't put them on too tight cutting off her circulation. The policewoman stepped forward, bringing one of Chloe's hands behind her back and then the other, Max winced at the clicking noise the cuffs made as the cop tightened them. The other cops stood on either side of Chloe.

"Don't say anything, I'm calling Sebastian right now." Max instructed Chloe, it didn't take a mind reader to see that Chloe had some smart ass remark she wanted to say. Chloe winked at Max instead as the cops lead her out of the house.

Max followed closely behind keeping on eye on Chloe, ensuring none of the cops got overzealous putting her in the back of the Police SUV that was parked in the driveway, lights still on. Nosy neighbors were out on porches and the sidewalk to see what was happening in small groups talking while watching the show. Max was too upset to be self conscious about the unwanted audience. It was all a bit much in Max's opinion, why did they need to send three cops in the first place? It wasn't like Chloe had a history of violence or anything. This was all a show for the Prescotts, of that Max was convinced.

Pulling out her phone, Max dialed a number she had memorized a week before, it only rang twice before Sebastian picked it up.

"Max, what's up?" Sebastian asked, fully alert.

"Sebastian, they just arrested Chloe for blackmail and threats. It was complete bullshit, they sent three cops and made a big show of it when they brought her out." Max said quickly, not pausing to take a breath, as she watched the SUV pull out of the driveway, craning her neck until it turned the corner and was out of view. The tone in Max's voice was more bitter than she meant, seeing Chloe manhandled the way she was before the rewind still had Max seething and shaking inside. She barely felt the chill on her skin as she stood out in the driveway.

Right now wasn't the time to breakdown though, Max knew, first thing was to get Chloe out of jail then finally tell her about about her power. The only thing was, Max wasn't sure if, or how, she'd tell Chloe about Rachel Amber. She wouldn't let Chloe be the one to discover Rachel again, there was no way she would allow her to go through that again.

"I'm be on my way in 5 minutes. Don't worry, Max, we knew they might do this. We've been working on the assumption that they would arrest Chloe so we wouldn't be caught unprepared. I'll be there in a few hours then see what we can do about bonding her out."

"Thanks, I have to call her mom and let her know what happened." Max replied, walking back into the house. "I'll get a ride with her and meet you there."

"Shit, that was fast." Sebastian was glaring at his TV screen where a reporter was doing a live report from in front of the Arcadia Bay Police Department. They were showing the cops pulling up slowly, then getting Chloe out of the SUV and walking her into the station. He was beyond pissed off, there had been a leak to the press, he should have known about it as well. What the hell was he paying his sources for if they weren't giving him the heads up on these things. "Ah, Max, yeah, that's not a good idea, I don't want you, Joyce or anyone at the station, there's already news crews all over the place. I think you're right, this was completely planned, there is no way all the networks would have gotten there so fast if they hadn't had a heads up."

"Wait, so I'm suppose to what? Sit here while they have Chloe and not go there to see her?" Max said, her tone clearly showing how much she didn't like that plan. "I can't let her sit there alone."

"I understand but they most likely won't let you see her until the earliest tomorrow, let me go there and we'll bond her out. She'll be home before you know it. I want to keep you as far away from the media as possible, Max, things are really starting to heat up with Nathan's hearing next week." Sebastian's office had been fielding dozens of calls, daily, the last couple weeks regarding this case. Luckily, they'd been able to shield the girls from the media scrutiny so far but he knew this was going to end that. Now they had footage of Chloe being lead into the police station in handcuffs, all bets were off on how far reporters and the tabloids would go to get a quote or a picture of the girls, who knew what kind of garbage they'd write. He'd seen it before, the victims demonized in the media especially when it came to a wealthy perpetrator.

"But, she'll think I abandoned her." Max replied in a small voice, guilt crashing down on her from the last time she'd left Chloe. She stared at the wine stain on the carpet, remembering when things were so much easier.

"I'll explain everything to her. Just, don't say anything to anyone, Max, they'll start calling and showing up at the house now that Chloe's address will be public record due to the arrest. I'm going to have one of my guys outside the house to make sure you're alright and to keep those vultures at bay, alright?" Sebastian was already in his car, pulling out of his driveway, glad he had already packed a suitcase for such a reason. He wouldn't get to Arcadia Bay until around 11pm, he was sure the cops, or more likely Prescott's attorneys, had the timing planned to make it as late as possible but early enough to make sure Chloe's arrest made the nightly news but not her release.

"Will they let her out tonight?" Max was almost afraid of the answer, she couldn't imagine Chloe being stuck in jail for any amount of time.

"I'll know more when I get there but I'm going to do everything I can to make sure she's home in time to eat her weight in pancakes with you in the morning. I'm going to call a few of my staff and get things going, like I said, Max, we knew this would probably happen and have already prepared for it. I had hoped they wouldn't be this stupid but if that's how they want to play this, we're ready, alright? I'll call you back as soon as I have any more news for you. Hang in there, Kiddo." Sebastian said hoping to alleviate some of Max's anxiety, the last thing he needed was for her to have a panic attack when she was alone right now.

"OK, please, tell Chloe I wanted to be there. Why I can't be." Max responded, already resigning herself to sitting at Chloe's house waiting for the other girl to return.

"I will, Max, I know it's a lot to ask but please, don't worry, I have this under control. Take care." Sebastian ended the call with Max and immediately called his assistant.

While not caught off guard, Sebastian was never caught off guard when it came to a case, he was mildly shocked that they had decided to pursue charges against Chloe. That opened the door to more of Nathan's wrongdoings than it would hurt Chloe's credibility. It wasn't making sense to him at the moment, that was the troubling part of it all that he wasn't about to share with Max or anyone outside of his assistant. They had to have more than just those text messages but he believed Chloe when she said there wasn't anything else so what was their angle here?

"Robb, I need you to contact our guy at the Arcadia Bay PD and find out what the hell is going on, they just arrested Price and it's all over the news already. Why the hell weren't we given the heads up on this thing? I need you to email me all the info we have have so far about Price, background, past run ins with the cops, everything our PI dug up then call him up and tell him to dig harder, we can't have anything coming up we don't know about, tell him I want her looked at harder than a Supreme Court Nominee, same for Prescott, I want it all. Oh, and pull Marcus off the Benson case and put him with Charlie on the Rachel Amber/Jefferson investigation, there is something hinky going on. My gut is telling me Jefferson, Rachel Amber and Prescott are somehow all tied together, too much overlap. If the cops won't do their jobs, we'll do it for them. Could you call the hotel I stayed at last time in Arcadia Bay and reserve the suite for the next three weeks, I don't see myself getting out of there any sooner." Sebastian shot off as soon as his assistant answered the phone. Robb was the best assistant Sebastian had ever come across, thorough, never missed a thing and smart as hell. He knew that every request he had just given would be followed to the letter, that was how Robb was.

"Got it," Robb replied quickly, already taking notes and sending emails out to the relevant people, "I'm rescheduling your appointments for the next few days and switch as many as possible to video conferences. Once we have a better idea of what's going on for the rest of the week, I'll take care of those as well. I sent you the initial reports from Charlie on the background of Jefferson, you're right, there's something off about this guy, besides the fact he's a pompous ass. I forwarded all the files on Amber's disappearance from the police to Charlie yesterday, though there's not much, they hardly did the basics to look for her beyond taking the initial report, sloppy, lazy police work there. Charlie is going to talk to the parents tomorrow, again, see if they can give him anything else. There were a few interesting emails between the school Principal, Wells and Prescott's father after the disappearance, Nathan seemed a lot more agitated and aggressive a few weeks after. That could be due to missing her or something else. I'll set Marcus up on tracking Prescott's movements during the summer along with Jefferson's, look for overlap or anything there."

"Great, tell Charlie and Marcus to meet me at the hotel tomorrow afternoon, around 4pm, I want to pool everything we have, you can conference in. There is something else going on here, something that these girls have inadvertently gotten caught up in, I don't know what yet but everything is pointing to the Prescott's and that damn school." Sebastian knew first hand how boarding schools full of bored, rich kids could be. He'd gone to an exclusive boarding school himself. He doubted that spoiled kids with ungodly amounts of money had changed much since his days. Anything he found at Blackwell wasn't likely to be too surprising, he'd seen pretty much everything back in his school days.

"You got it." Robb replied, making more notes and sending more emails. Being Sebastian's assistant for over 5 years now (a record at the firm) they had found a rhythm where they were on the same page without needing much discussion.

"Thanks, Robb, I appreciate it. Talk to you later." Sebastian hung up knowing that most, if not all, the reports he'd asked for would be waiting for him when he got to the hotel.

As he drove, the Oregon landscape flashing past his window, the grey highway stretching for miles ahead of him, he was going over everything he knew so far, trying to piece it all together. There was something he was missing and it was gnawing at him. He needed to figure it out and how Chloe and Max were mixed up in it.

* * *

Chloe glared at the back of Officer Kincaid's head as he drove the SUV to the station, Officer Garland sat next to her while the other cop, Walters sat up front in the passenger seat. So far she'd been able to keep her mouth shut even though she had about a thousand things she wanted to say with these assholes starting with why the fuck they felt the need to handcuff her. It was hella hard to keep her balance whenever the SUV turned a corner, even with her seatbelted in. The SUV was a step up from the cop cars she'd been in before, at least she had legroom. The interior was black with vinyl seats. There was a glass partition between the front and the back area that was slid to the side to allow an opening for the officers to talk back and forth. Between the cops in the front was a shotgun that was mounted to the dash next to a computer that Chloe saw had her record up on the screen. She grinned at the mug shot, she had been so high when they took it last year, her eyes were bloodshot as she gave the camera a smirk.

She had been caught spray painting on the wall in the alley behind the hardware store for the third time. They had taken her in to teach her a lesson, she'd gotten a $200 fine and 30 hours community service. That part was hella lame. David had threatened to kick her out but Joyce had put a stop to that even though she had barely spoken to Chloe for almost a month afterwards. Despite all the trouble Chloe had gotten into that was the only time she'd actually been arrested. Even then she hadn't spent anytime in a cell, she'd been able to sign herself out on a signature bond. Something told her that this time she wouldn't be so lucky, the three all business cops sent to get her was the first clue.

"Unit 894 in route transporting one, female, caucasian, 19, Price, Chloe, E. for questioning, ETA 19:20, over." Walters reported in on the radio that was on his shoulder.

The radio on the dash crackled with a static filled reply, "Roger, Unit 894, instructed to bring through the front entrance, over."

The two male cops in the front flashed excited smiles at each other while Garland scowled in the backseat.

"Ready for your close up, Garland?" Kincaid joked, looking at his colleague through the rearview mirror. Next to him, Walters was smoothing down his dark brown hair and straightening his shirt.

Garland's scowl only deepened as she stared straight ahead. She was clearly not as excited as the two up front.

Chloe's confusion only grew as they got closer to the police station. About a block away from the station she started seeing news vans for all the major stations and even the 24 hours news channels. _What the hell is going on? Did something major happen I don't know about, did they catch some serial killer or something?_

As they pulled up to the front of the station, Chloe had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, the realization slowly hitting her as Kincaid slowed down in front of the crowd of reporters and gawkers. They all got excited like feeding time at the zoo as the SUV stopped in front of the entrance.

_Are they seriously all here for, for...me? Whoa this is hella fucked up._ Chloe didn't know if she should be terrified or excited. The reporters were all jockeying for position, to be right in front of the SUV's doors, mics held out, the flashes from all the camera's were not unlike strobe lights at a rave.

"Get your game faces on, it's showtime." Kincaid said as he turned off the engine and opened his door, walking around to stand in front of Chloe's door. Walters got out on his side, quickly wiping the grin off his face before facing the press.

"Don't get cute, keep your head and eyes down, mouth shut, walk fast." Officer Garland sternly whispered after the other two cops had left the vehicle. It sounded more like she was trying to help Chloe rather than telling her what to do. It dawned on Chloe that Garland maybe wasn't being a hardass because she had something to prove but because she found this entire situation as fucked up as Chloe did.

The female officer exited on her side and walked around to open Chloe's door, the other two cops walked ahead to grab the door though making sure to leave room for the reporters to get pictures and video of Chloe stepping out of the SUV. It almost felt like she was rock star as the noise of the crowd increased close to deafening levels, questions coming at her from every direction, the clicking of cameras. Yeah, if it wasn't for the fact that she was in handcuffs, being directed by the strong grip of the female officer on her arm, it would have been hella cool but this was the exact opposite of cool. It was a freaking nightmare as she caught some of the questions out of the cacophony of noise. Suddenly, the 20 feet to the doors of the police station felt like 20 miles.

"Chloe, did you threaten to kill Nathan Prescott?" _Now I kind of wish I had._

"Was the gun in the bathroom really yours?" _If it was my gun, Max would never had been hurt, asshole._

"Were you and Nathan Prescott lovers?" _I think I just threw up in my mouth a little._

"Did you and Max Caulfield plan to kidnap Nathan Prescott?" _Is that what that little fucker is telling people?_

"Is it true you were stalking Nathan?" _He wishes, the loser has to drug girls to get them to pay any attention to him._

"Where you the one that actually shot Max?" Chloe's steady steps faltered at the question, as she almost turned her head to look incredulously at whoever had asked her that, catching herself, she gritted her teeth and kept her head down. How could anyone ever think she would do anything to hurt Max, just the thought of people thinking that made her stomach churn. The only thing that kept her moving forward was the firm hold Officer Garland had on her arm as she stepped up the pace to get Chloe into the building, they were moving at almost a jog to get Chloe into the building faster and away from the press.

As the doors closed behind them, Chloe could still hear them shouting out questions but thankfully couldn't make out any individual ones, they all blended together to add to the general noise.

Chloe didn't realize she was shaking until Garland lead her over to a counter. "Are there any sharp objects in your pockets or weapons on you?"

Chloe shook her head no in reply, making a mental note that she really needed to buy Max a pony or something for Christmas at this rate.

The officer patted Chloe down, emptying her pockets. She placed Chloe's cellphone, keys and some change into a bag then wrote her name on it before handing it over to a bored looking woman behind the counter. She then lead Chloe over to a bench and sat her down.

Garland gave her a sharp look that was tinged with concern, "Stay here, I'll be right back."

Chloe's entire body was trembling as she tried to get her breathing back to normal, it felt like she'd ran a marathon. Walking through all those reporters was one of the most intense things she'd been through since her father had died and Max left. Obviously, the Prescott PR Team was in overdrive to put anything out there to make her and Max the villains.

She was well aware that was a possibility, Sebastian had warned them enough, but until that point it had been an abstract idea in the back of her head. Her and Max had been avoiding the news and papers since Max had gotten out of the hospital. Now though she thought they needed to keep better track of what was being said. She felt anger rising up in her as she thought of the questions they'd been throwing at her. What else was being said that she wasn't aware of, that she needed to set the record straight on? Did people really think her and Max had been in on some elaborate plot? How could anyone look at Max and think she had one mean or deceptive bone in her body? After a few minutes she wasn't sure if she was shaking from adrenaline still or from anger. More than anything, at that moment she wanted the cuffs off, her hands were starting to fall asleep. Her leg was bouncing up and down with pent up energy, normally she'd be pacing but unable to do that, her leg bounced like a jackhammer. Her shoulders were starting to ache from the uncomfortable position. Her wrists protested as she tried to wiggle them to get some circulation back in her hands.

Taking a deep breath, Chloe finally looked up, her eyes focusing at all the activity going on around her. There were cops coming and going, a few other people sitting on other benches, handcuffed as well, at least that wasn't a special treat just for her. One guy was clearly drunk as he swayed around on the bench. His head would droop down before he'd jerk it back up, like a kid caught sleeping in class. Chloe was feeling seasick just looking at him.

Officer Garland was talking to an older man with grey hair, looking quite like a stern grandfather. Chloe recognized him as Chief Foley. He came into the diner often enough to be on a first name basis with Joyce. When she was a little kid he use to pull quarters out from behind her ears and other little magic tricks to entertain her whenever he saw her at the diner, that was before he was the chief though. _Maybe he can make these cuffs disappear._

Chloe wasn't going to fool herself into thinking she'd get any special treatment just because the chief of police had known her since she was a little kid. No one got to any position of power in Arcadia Bay without the Prescotts putting them there. Officers Kincaid and Walters were talking with a couple other cops, laughing at something Kincaid had said.

Chloe's ear itched, she rubbed her it against her shoulder, not quite able to hit the right spot. With a grunt of frustration she threw herself back against the bench, slouching down with her legs sticking out, attempting to look like she didn't have a care in the world.

"OK get up." Officer Garland said as she stood back over Chloe. She looked up at her through the blue hair that had fallen over her eyes, her face a practiced mask of boredom but made no move to stand. With a sigh, Garland grabbed her arm, not roughly, only enough to help Chloe stand up. The teenager wanted to ask what was going to happen now but kept her mouth shut, Max's words repeating in her mind.

The officer lead her into a small room that was every cliche cop show come to life. One way mirror along one wall, boring off white walls, small metal table with a chair on either side. Before Chloe sat down Officer Garland uncuffed her hands. She gratefully rolled her shoulders while flexing her fingers and shaking some feeling back into her hands.

"Have a seat, do you want some water or anything to drink?"

Chloe looked at her as if it was a trick question, a way to break her stoney silence, get her talking. Would asking for a Dr. Pepper be a sign of weakness, that her silence was easily broken in exchange for a sugary, carbonated beverage? Deciding her pride was worth more, regardless of how great a cold Dr. Pepper would taste at the moment to her dry throat, Chloe gave the female officer a curt shake of her head and sat down at the table, hands splayed out in front of her on the cold surface. Not even bothering to hide her eyeroll, Officer Garland walked out of the door, firmly closing the door behind her.

It was an interrogation tactic, Chloe knew that, leave her alone in an empty room with her own thoughts to start imagining all the terrible ways this could go. _Nope, fuck that._

Chloe started thinking about Max, more so about what Max was keeping from her. She knew that there was something Max was holding back from her, had been since the hospital. There were times she'd catch Max looking at her as if she had something she needed to tell her but then would stop herself. Then there were the other looks Max would give her, ones that made her heart skip a beat and her stomach flip. She was noticing those looks more and more lately.

It was no secret that Chloe had a thing for Rachel Amber, maybe even was in love with her, definitely infatuated, that being said, Chloe had stopped pretending months ago that Rachel was going to suddenly change her mind, look at Chloe and decide that she was the one for her, even before she disappeared. If it hadn't happened already, it never would. That didn't stop that small glimmer of hope from burning in the back of her mind no matter how often she tried to snuff it out. There would always be a part of her that would be enamoured with Rachel Amber. Despite popular opinion, though, Chloe was not that much of a masochist to pine away waiting for Rachel to suddenly decide she liked making out with Chloe more than the guys she was with.

That being said, she wasn't completely oblivious to the way her heart sped up when she would catch Max giving her that look, the way her breath would catch at times when she would see Max being all Max like and adorkable, the heat that would creep up her neck when helping Max change her shirt, the way she replayed the kiss over and over in her head at night before falling to sleep. Or how they seemed to fit together perfectly and she slept better than she had in years when Max was snuggled up against her. No, she hadn't been ignoring all that, per say, more like she was pushing it to the back of her mind, letting her subconscious deal with it all while she concentrated on other things, such as making up for getting Max almost killed and getting past all the Prescott bullshit.

She'd told herself that everything seemed to fit for them so well because they'd known each other since they were toddlers, they were just really comfortable with each other. It was no big deal that they both seemed to seek out some type of physical contact with each other all the times. At least that's what she told herself usually but when she was stoned or worse, drunk, and being completely honest with herself much more confusing and scary admissions would come to mind. Things that she felt could completely ruin their friendship if she fucked it up. Which, again, being completely honest with herself she knew she would because she always fucked things up. She couldn't lose Max's friendship again after finally having the girl back in her life. She wasn't stupid, she was almost positive Max had feelings for her, more than friend feelings, this wasn't an unrequited thing, it was more of a she couldn't go on if Max left her again thing. Something that was a lot more likely to happen if she acted on the way she was feeling.

_Maybe it would be easier to think about all the Prescott bullshit rather than this._

Chloe leaned back in the chair, closing her eyes as she tapped her foot to some song that had been stuck in her head for days. This day had been an all around shitfest. She just wanted to get the fuck out of there and make sure Max was really alright. She started playing the entire Mindless Self Indulgence record, _If_ in her head. She knew the drill, they'd keep her waiting a while. Maybe she could catch a nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the Kudos, reviews and messages. I've said it before but it's worth repeating, your enthusiasm is really life blood to writers on these sites, we're not doing it for the money. Extra special bonus, I already have the next chapter done so there won't be such a long wait between chapters next time. Thanks for the support, it goes a long way to keep me motivated.


	8. Whiplash Changes so Fast

_You'll always have my heart_  
_Whether in this world or the next_  
_You are the missing part_  
_And darling please don't fret_  
_Cuz if I love you now then my love will be stronger yet_  
_And time will move so fast like our lives_  
_Just close your eyes and I'll be right back_  
_I'll be right back_

 

The sound of the door opening pulled Chloe from her thoughts, she’d been matching comic book heroes up against each other in her head attempting to figure out which one would win in a Hunger Games type battle, so far Black Canary was kicking epic ass. A middle aged guy walked in. He had brown hair that he brushed forward desperately trying to hide his receding hairline. His eyes were a dull brown, his nose a couple sizes too big for his thin lips underneath, he reminded Chloe of a reptile. Crossing over to the empty chair in front of Chloe he held out his hand before sitting down. “Hello, Ms. Price, I’m Detective Bukowski.”

Looking at his hand like it was the last thing she wanted to touch, Chloe kept her hands on the table, palms down. Her eyes trailed back to stare at the mirror next to her, hoping she was staring down any assholes who were watching this bullshit, Prescott produced show.

Clearing his throat uncomfortably, Det. Bukowski set a folder down on the table and took the seat across from the sullen teenager. “I know you already talked to the police about what happened with Mr. Prescott in that bathroom but there are a few things we need to clear up. We just want to get your side of the story, I’m sure we can clear this all up so you can go home.”

Chloe rolled her eyes, seriously, he thought she would be that stupid to be all, ‘Gee, that’s swell, let me tell you everything’? To say she was insulted was putting it mildly. She looked him right in the eyes, her blue ones full of mistrust and thinly concealed anger. She gave him her biggest and brightest smile, “I want to talk to my attorney.”

“Technically, we haven’t charged you with anything yet...” Det. Bukowski already knew this was a lost cause but The Chief and the Prescott attorneys were on the other side of the glass watching, he couldn’t give up so easily. Surely, he could crack this punk.

Chloe felt her blood boiling, almost enough to open her mouth again but bit the inside of her cheek instead until she tasted copper. Had they not come into her home, handcuffed her and told her that she was under arrest? Had they not walked her out of her house in handcuffs, in front of all the neighbors, then forced her to take the worst walk of shame ever, through dozens of reporters, to the police station then kept her locked up in this room for over an hour like a caged animal, the entire time making her believe she was under arrest?

“I want to speak to my lawyer.” She spit out with all the venom she felt. It was enough to make Det. Bukowski lean back away from her.

“Listen, we’re only trying to clear things up here, that’s all, we’re just having an informal chat, off the record, about what happened, and then you can go.” The detective knew he’d moved from a gray area to full on unethical (and probably illegal) questioning but he was hoping she didn’t know that. He couldn’t let this aggravating, blue haired, punk make him look bad in front of everyone.

“I would like to converse with my legal representation.” Chloe replied, making her face as impassive and bored as possible. One of her special talents, of many, was knowing when she was getting to someone and she could already tell she was getting to the detective. He kept sending anxious glances at the one way mirror, so Chloe knew they had an audience, not that she expected any different.

“Kid, I’m trying to help you here but you’re not making it easy for me. We haven’t formally charged you with anything yet because I believe this has been a huge misunderstanding. If you tell me what happened, I can help you, then you can leave and this will be cleared up.” He held his hands palms up, open, trying to show he was being honest and sincere, opening his eyes wider to convey he was only telling the truth. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t dealing with some dumb scared kid, Chloe had been using that trick since she was 12 to proclaim her innocence when she got caught doing something.

“Je veux parler à mon avocat.” Chloe replied, smirking at the detective who seemed at a complete loss as to how to get her to say anything else.

“What? What did you just say?” Det. Bukowski felt the interview, or rather lack thereof, slipping away from him, this fucking little punk was making him look like an asshole. He wasn’t paid enough to deal with this shit. He pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath, he felt a migraine coming on.

Chloe’s smirk grew wider, she was starting to enjoy herself maybe a bit too much. “Je dis que je veux parler à mon avocat en français.”

There was a knock on the door, a younger woman walked in holding yet another folder. She looked at least ten years younger than Det. Bukowski. She was wearing a white polo with the Arcadia Bay Police Department seal on the top right side, with khaki pants. Her blond hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail that showed off her bright hazel eyes. She reminded Chloe of a blond Sporty Spice. “Sorry, to interrupt but the Chief needs to talk to you, Detective.”

He knew he was in the shit, they were pulling him out but he couldn’t help but be grateful to get away from the smug kid in front of him. Kids these day didn’t have the right amount of fear and respect for law enforcement. They were too use to mommy and daddy bailing their spoiled ass out of anything they go into it. Casting one more frustrated glare in Chloe’s direction, he picked up his files and walked out the door, hoping he wasn’t being told to clean out his desk.

Chloe silently laughed, that had been all too easy. She curiously eyed Bukowski’s replacement wondering what her angle was going to be. Good cop, bad cop, slutty cop, friendly confidant, tough but lovable advisor, wise beyond her years, relatable past? She really hoped it would be slutty cop, that was her favorite.

“While we wait do you want something to drink? It’s pretty warm in here, right?”

 _Ok, so far good cop with a dash of friendly confidant._ Chloe shook her head then stared down at her hands, tapping on a rhythm on the metal table with her thumbs.

“You sure you don’t want some water at least? These rooms always make my throat so dry, lack of air circulation or something.”

Chloe quirked one eyebrow, but didn’t look up as she smirked down at the table, her thumbs keeping up the little beat she had going on. She wouldn’t have been shocked if the woman undid her top button and started fanning herself, she was laying it on pretty thick. Instead she stood there awkwardly.

“You know what? I’m going to grab you a bottle of water, in case you change your mind and want one later.” And with that she walked out of the room, leaving Chloe alone again, with the exception of the pricks watching her through the one way mirror.

While many people viewed Chloe as just a dropout stoner with no future, the truth was Chloe was hella intelligent, a lot more intelligent than most people ever gave her credit for. The main problem Chloe had was that she didn’t care to apply herself most the time. Since her life had gone to shit the most repeated phrase Chloe had heard from teachers, counselors, even her own Mom was that she failed to live up to her potential but in her view, wasn’t it her choice to decide how much potential she had? Even though school bored her to tears, she loved to learn, only she wanted to learn things that interested her. Something would pop into her head or catch her attention and she had to learn everything she could about it. Right after Rachel had gone missing, Chloe had been obsessed with learning everything she could about interrogation techniques and body language so she could question people, find out if they were lying to her about Rachel’s whereabouts.

Sadly, she wasn’t able to put her new knowledge into much practice as no one she talked to knew where Rachel had gone off to. No one even gave her a hint that they were lying, so while the skill hadn’t helped her, yet, with finding Rachel, it had come in handy for the basic knowledge of reading people. And now, for situations like this. She knew what they were doing, the little psychological games they would play. Make her feel isolated, that they were the only ones who could help her, apply a bit of pressure, a too hot room, unending boredom, try to gain her trust with little things, build up rapport. And it was easy to see how it worked a lot of the time but Chloe knew the game.

Chloe kept tapping away at the table, not sure how much time had passed, not more than half an hour since the woman had left to get her some water she didn’t ask for. She knew Max had called Sebastian so it was only a matter of time before he was there. He’d gone back to Portland a few days ago, so it would take a few hours for him to get there which couldn’t be longer than an hour at this point assuming he left as soon as Max called. Fuck, she really hoped Max didn’t try to come to the station, not with the Media Circus out there, it would definitely give the younger girl a panic attack, it almost gave her one.

And just like that, all roads lead back to thinking about her geeky, slightly socially awkward, wayward best friend. The thought of Max getting questions thrown at her like Chloe had by all those reporters brought out the overprotective side of her. She would shove a microphone down anyone’s throat that harassed Max. She glanced down at her hands, they were balled up into fists. She relaxed her hands and rolled her shoulders, taking a deep breath then releasing it as she resumed her tapping on the table, putting on the mask of disaffected youth for the audience behind the glass.

After what felt like an eternity, the woman came back in and placed a bottle of water on the table in front of Chloe. Condensation rolled down the sides in small beads. She was thirsty but she refused to give them any satisfaction of doing something they wanted.

The woman sat in the chair across from Chloe, she took a long, exaggerated drink from the water bottle she was holding. “Detective Bukowski had something else to take care of. I’m Karen, by the way.”

Chloe barely glanced up at her as she pointedly ignored her own water. She was singing Sparklehorse in her head, anything to pass the time but talk to these assholes without Sebastian there. If they were going to arrest her, like really arrest her and not just parade her in front of the press like a prized pony, than she wished they get on with it and put her in a cell or something already. At least that should allow for some interesting people watching.

“I understand you’re upset, you were brought here in handcuffs then had to deal with all the press out there, I get it, you’re pissed off. I would be too. Why don’t we just chat and let me see what I can do to get you out of here, alright?”

“I want to speak to my attorney.” Chloe said, again, giving Karen a sweet smile. Why the fuck could they not get it through their heads, she wasn’t going to say anything else, they could bring her water, they could bring her a blunt with a bottle of Jack to wash it down, she still wasn’t going to say anything. _I hope Max moved my weed so step-ass doesn’t find it._

“Perhaps than we should bring Max down here, see what she has to say about you both attempting to blackmail Nathan?”

At the mention of Max, Chloe’s head jerked up so fast she wouldn’t have been surprised if she gave herself whiplash. Her blue eyes blazed with fury, never before had she wished more for laser eyes. On reflex she almost shouted at Karen to leave Max out of this but stopped herself at the last possible second. Shaking her head, she chuckled humorlessly. She had completely handed them her kryptonite on a silver platter with a bow on top. Well played, she hadn’t seen that one coming. _So bad cop it is._

Chloe leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest, sticking her chin out as she glared daggers at the woman in front of her. Her guard was fully up, they wouldn’t get a second chance to get a reaction out of her again.

Karen smiled with this new knowledge, “Of course, we can avoid all that, avoid dragging Max past all those reporters, all that scrutiny, because let’s be real, the poor girl has already been through enough with being shot, right? Why put her through all of that if she truly had nothing to do with this? Chloe, tell me what was going on between you and Nathan so we don’t have to bring Max in as well. Because unless you start talking to us, that’s exactly what we’re going to be forced to do.”

 _Don’t react, don’t say a word, they’re bluffing, you know they’re bluffing, they have nothing on Max, if they did they would have brought her in as well, all the better for the media show they were putting on. Don’t say a fucking word, Price, don’t blink, they are pressing your buttons, trying to piss you off so you say something. Do. Not. Open. Your. Mouth. Max is going to be fine, they can’t do anything to Max._ Chloe gritted her teeth, her jaw clenched to the point of hurting but she wouldn’t give them one iota of a reaction. 

Karen glanced at the watch on her wrist, Chloe noticed her fingernails were short but well-manicured, she wasn’t in a uniform, more than likely another detective. She tried to get a look at the time but the glare from the light over head on the watch face made it impossible. “Let’s try something a little easier, why were you blackmailing Nathan Prescott? If you can tell me that we might be able to avoid involving Max in this, you don’t want her to be involved in something you did on your own, right? That wouldn’t be fair to her, especially after everything you’ve caused her.”

 _Everything **I’ve** caused!!!….Goddammit, Chloe Elizabeth, do not say a fucking word, do not respond. They are playing on your insecurities, your guilt, she’s only taking shots in the dark, do not let her know she’s hitting bull’s-eyes. Please, get here Sebastian, this is such bullshit. _ Chloe stared at a spot on the wall just past Karen’s left shoulder, doing her best to tune everything she said out. Her fingernails were digging into her palms leaving little crescent moon marks. She cracked her neck and rolled her shoulders, again, shaking some of the tension out of them. That was the only movement she made as she resolutely kept her mouth shut, not even trusting it to ask for her attorney one more time.

Like a lion stalking an injured gazelle, Karen was stalking her prey, finding her weakness to take her down for the kill. She would concede, Chloe was good, but she couldn’t quite hide the way she would flinch, involuntarily, whenever Max was brought up. All she had to do was apply more pressure, it was clear the girl had a temper, keep pressing down on the pressure points and she’d start talking, they always did. “Ok, if you’re not going to talk to me, then I’m going to have to send some officers to pick up Max and bring her here to talk to us. Are you really so selfish as to let Max go through all of that? The humiliation of being forced to walked through all those reporters? Dealing with all those questions being thrown at her. You thought they had questions for you? You should hear some of the speculation going on about Max’s role in all of this.”

“I. Want. To. Speak. To. My. Attorney.” Chloe bit out each word through clenched teeth, tight lips, struggling to not say anything else. Everything Karen said felt like a knife to her heart, even though she knew, logically it was all bullshit. Chloe was not known for being rational where Max was concerned. The thought of Max ever being subjected to anything like this had Chloe going out of her mind, but the logical small voice in her head kept telling her, they couldn’t do anything to Max because there was nothing there for them use against her. The only thing they had against Max was Chloe herself, the fact that they were friends before any of this happened. All she had to do was keep it together for a little longer. It was a high stakes game of chicken to see who would flinch first. There were beads of sweat starting to form on the back of Chloe’s neck but she refused to acknowledge them anymore than she was acknowledging the crap Karen was spewing at her.

Karen gave Chloe a sympathetic smile, she knew the girl was on the edge of losing it, she was barely controlling herself as it was, just a little more pushing. “Chloe, it’s obvious you care about your friend, why would you want to subject Max to any unnecessary questioning?”

“The only unnecessary questioning going on right now is yours with my client.” Sebastian said as he walked into the small room. He set his briefcase down on the table and put a reassuring hand on Chloe’s shoulder. “And I’m pretty certain, not in the most legal way as well.”

Chloe could have cried tears of relief at the sight of Sebastian. As usual, he looked every inch the professional, his suit was unwrinkled, his tie was straight, he didn’t look like he’d just spent hours in a car driving. Taking a shaky breath, she allowed herself to relax to the point where she didn’t think she was going to break any of her teeth from how hard she was clenching her jaw.

When he had seen Chloe through the window of the interrogation room door, he had felt his blood pressure raise, it was clear they had been putting the girl through an emotional beating. He could see she was shaking with the effort of not responding to whatever they had been saying to her. While they had been checking his credentials, trying to delay him from interrupting the “interview” he had clearly heard Chloe ask for her attorney, well more like growled the words but it was clear that was not the first time she had asked.

 “I’m well within the law to ask her questions, we haven’t charged her with anything yet. This is merely an interview to see if there is a reason for charges to be filed.” Karen replied, eyeing Chloe’s attorney up and down. She was shocked to notice right away that this wasn’t some public defender or even one of those cheap, just a step above a public defender type of attorneys. The way he casually wore his expensive suit, like it was a second skin and carried himself, she guessed he was Ivy League educated, how the hell had Price been able to afford this guy?

“I’m sorry, but I don’t recognize you as one of the Arcadia Bay Detectives, who are you?” Sebastian asked. He’d made it a point to know all the detectives in the ABPD, along with a dossier on each of them to see which ones were on the Prescott payroll and which ones might be clean enough to ensure the evidence in the case against Nathan didn’t mysteriously disappear or get tampered with. This woman didn’t look like some small town police detective, despite the ABPD polo shirt she was wearing, she was way too polished, her normally high maintenance look purposefully toned down to blend in better but he could spot a $500 haircut from a mile away along with the expensive Jimmy Choo shoes she was wearing.

“I’m Karen Galveston, I’m a special projects consultant for the department. And you are?” Karen held out her hand. Sebastian took it, noticing the way she slightly turned her palm so her hand would be on top, a classic power move.

“Sebastian Sendal, I represent Chloe Price. Since you don’t have the authority to arrest my client, being only a special projects consultant, I’m going to have to insist you let her leave or let me talk to an actual detective. Though at this point, it might be best if I talk to Chief Foley, directly, to go over the numerous civil rights violations that have happened today to my client with the use of his police department.” Sebastian looked directly at the one way mirror for the last part of his statement, knowing full well the Chief would be in there watching.

Chloe watched the exchange with fascination. She’d never heard of the police using consultants to question suspects before. If Sebastian was surprised at finding a consultant and not an actual police detective questioning her, he didn’t show it. He was in full professional mode now, his facial expression was pleasant but that was it, there was nothing more to read into.

“Mr. Sendal, as I’m sure you know there isn’t any laws that prohibit me from talking to your client as she had not had any formal charges brought against her, yet.” Karen knew she was in a precarious position right now, if he had been some low paid, overworked public defender or low level attorney, it would have been easy enough to talk circles around him, as they tended to not want to create any extra work for themselves, but she knew, Sebastian Sendal was a completely different beast. She’d heard of him and his firm's reputation, they were one of the best on the west coast, second only to her employers. What was he doing representing a high school dropout?

“Right, that’s debatable but let’s set that aside right now and concentrate on the manner in which she was brought in for questioning. I do believe she was told that there was a warrant for her when they entered her home and yet when I asked there was no warrant.”

“They were willing let in by Maxine Caulfield.” Karen interjected, feeling her stomach starting to drop.

Sebastian gave her a condescending smile, like a grown up would give a child for interrupting as he continued, ticking each point off on his fingers for emphasis. “She was handcuffed, as witnessed by Max Caulfield, told she was under arrest and then led out of the house in handcuffs. The she was brought here, still under the assumption she was under arrest because that was what she had been told, with a warrant and everything.”

Chloe couldn’t help the smirk that crossed her face, finally, after making her sweat for hours, Sebastian was returning the favor. She wished she had some popcorn for the show. 

“I can’t speak to what was said or done at the Price house.” Karen replied, barely keeping the defensiveness out of her voice. She shifted in her chair, unnerved at the friendly, calculated tone the attorney used but yet was still able to easily convey his disdain.

“And yet you already have in regards to how they gained entry, interesting.” Sebastian said, a hint of fake curiosity in his voice. “Continuing, someone in this department obviously leaked to the press what was happening because they were all here waiting to witness Chloe being lead out of the police SUV, in handcuffs, which correct me if I’m wrong but don’t you have a back door where you normally bring in people you pick up in police vehicles? I also find that very interesting, seeing as she hadn’t been charged with any crime yet. Then, after repeated request for her attorney to be present, she is continued to be questioned but conveniently the cameras in here are turned off. Oh and not even by anyone with any real authority here, that’s a nice touch.” The first thing Sebastian had asked for after asking about Chloe’s whereabouts was for all copies of any and all questioning they’d tried to engage in with his client. He was hardly surprised to find that they claimed that there wasn’t any, as they were only informally talking to Chloe. “Now, Ms. Galveston, I can think of at least 6 different civil right violations against my client just off the top of my head, so either arrest her or she is walking out that door with me right now.”

Chloe wanted to jump up and cheer but she contained herself with only smirking at the one way mirror instead. Part of her was still unwilling to believe that they were going to just let her walk out of there, not after everything they had put her through, all this effort.

“Now, Mr. Sendal, I’m sure you understand that you can’t leave with your client, there are still a lot of unanswered questions and we do have evidence of Chloe trying to blackmail Nathan Prescott…” Karen was struggling to salvage the complete mess the entire situation had quickly deteriorated into for her and the department.

“Ms. Galveston, if you had enough of anything to charge my client, you wouldn’t have had to resort to such underhanded tactics to try and scare her into saying something incriminating, please, don’t try to insult mine nor my client's intelligence. I suggest that we stop wasting everyone’s time and I’ll be leaving with Ms. Price now. If there comes a time when you have actual, solid evidence beyond a few questionable text messages, I welcome you to get in touch with my office at which time I will bring Chloe in to answer any questions she can but until such a time exists, no one will be contacting either of my clients directly or harassing my clients, as I also represent Maxine Caulfield.”

“We can still hold her, she has 7 unpaid parking tickets…”

Sebastian laughed, unable to hide his utter disgust and disregard for the Arcadia Bay Police or the Prescott’s attorney’s whom he was well aware were the ones who were paying for this ‘special projects consultant’. “Come on, Chloe, let’s go, we’ll stop by the front desk and take care of those parking tickets on our way out when we collect your things. Have a good night, Ms. Galveston.”

Unable to do anything without causing a bigger PR and legal nightmare, Karen had no choice but to watch Sebastian and Chloe leave the interview room. It pained her, she prided herself at being one of the best in her field but within minutes, that unbearably, pompous, arrogant ass, Sebastian Sendal had made her feel like a complete amateur.  

At the door Chloe stopped and turned around, the fakest smile on her face as she leaned over to grab the untouched bottle of water left for her. She took a big gulp, finishing half the bottle.

“Thanks for the water.” she said, following her attorney out the door, a bounce in her step.

* * *

 

Kate Marsh brushed the soft fur of her bunny. Things had been strangely quiet around campus since the incident in the bathroom with Max and Nathan. She had been praying for Max everyday along with praying that God would forgive her for the horrible relief Kate had felt when it had stopped people from talking about her and that horrible video. After a few days Kate still felt incredibly guilty. She had come to the realized that sometimes prayer wasn’t enough, sometimes God needed you to do something, so that’s what Kate was doing.

Kate had spent an hour thanking God when Max woke up. Being able to visit Max in the hospital and to see that her friend really was alive and going to make it filled Kate with such gratitude for her Lord. Still, she had that guilt in her that wouldn’t go away, the guilt that in a moment of weakness she had been thankful something bigger than her shameful video had happened, that Max, her friend Max, had been shot. That had sent her on a spiral of worry and guilt that it was partly her fault for praying so hard that people would stop harassing her about the video.

Her Bible hadn’t provided her any guidance on what to do if you thought your prayers might have been answered in the form of your friend being shot by someone that you knew was a less than good person. It was then when Kate decided she needed to take a more active role in helping to ease the burden of guilt and shame in her heart. To make herself worthy again of God’s grace and Max’s friendship.

It started with small things, donating the clothes she wasn’t wearing to charity and then getting the other girls in her dorm to do the same. Volunteering at the retirement home to read to the residents there, they truly appreciated that as many of them didn’t get any visitors. Even those activities, while good, they didn’t feel like Kate was really making progress in getting over her guilt and shame, in purifying her soul.

It wasn’t until she had gone to visit Max and they talked that an idea had started burning in the back of her mind. Max had made a couple delicate comments along the lines of maybe Nathan had slipped something in her drink that night at the party, that none of what happened was Kate’s fault. Kate had suspected something along those lines but had pushed the thoughts away as unkind towards her fellow classmate. That was until he shot Max. Then her thoughts took a much different path, a bit more Old Testament. If Nathan had drugged her that night, which she was positive he had, if she would have spoken up maybe he wouldn’t have been in the bathroom that day, or even in school, and Max would have never been hurt.

After her visit with Max, on her way back to Blackwell, Kate knew what she had to do, she had to prove that Nathan had drugged her. She needed to bring his sins out into the light of day for all to see.

Things had been going surprisingly well for her in that regard in the last few days.

 

* * *

 

 

“Holy shit, Sebastian, you were hella bad ass in there!” Chloe exclaimed, bouncing excitedly on the leather seat of Sebastian’s car. “I mean, I already knew you were badass but to see you in action, dude, it was a thing of beauty.”

They had just left the police department after collecting Chloe’s personal things, her cellphone, some change, her keys, then paying her parking tickets. They had walked out the front door to ensure the reporters still hanging around caught Chloe walking out of the police station without handcuffs, her head held high. She still ignored the questions though she really wanted to be able to say no comment, but Sebastian had warned her already to not say a word. Due to all the media surrounding Chloe being marched into the station earlier, Sebastian was calling for a press conference the next day to clear up some of the more colorful stories and rumors making the rounds.

It was an action he had been hoping to avoid until at least the trial for Nathan started but the Prescott’s had shown they were willing to do whatever it took to throw as much mud in the girls direction and off of Nathan that it was unavoidable at this point.

“Hey, you did good yourself, I’m proud of you for not saying anything or losing your cool. I know how much pressure they can put on you, so great job, kiddo.” Chloe turned a light red under the praise but beamed all the same.

“Thanks, I almost lost it when that bitch kept dragging Max into it, threatening to put her through the same shit they were doing to me.” Just thinking about it made Chloe’s blood boil, that they would use Max as a weapon against her.

“I wish I could tell you that it won’t happen again, that Prescott’s lawyers, the police, reporters and tabloids, hell even strangers on the street, won’t try to use Max against you, Chloe, but the sad truth is, they will, repeatedly. This is a high profile case, which means there is going to be a lot of interest in everything you and Max do, in everything you say or don’t say. This is only the beginning, kid, you need to be strong because we haven’t even made it through Nathan’s preliminary hearing yet. I won’t lie to you, there are going to be days when you want to scream at everyone but you can’t. People you thought were your friends are going to sell you out to the tabloids, or Prescott’s legal team, or hell, both. Complete strangers are going to think they know you, that they have the right to ask you the most invasive, inappropriate questions you’ve ever heard, don’t ever give them the satisfaction of getting a negative reaction out of you because once they know they can, they’ll push for that every time. It makes for a better story, don’t give them that story, Chloe. I know you’re better than that.” Sebastian worried how the girls would hold up under the microscope they were now going to find themselves in.

His words quickly dampened Chloe enthusiasm as she stared out the window, taking them in, trying to imagine how life was yet again dramatically changing for her.

More than likely, Sebastian knew, Max was going to get off a lot easier than Chloe would. Max had that Taylor Swift, awkward, shy, every girl look about her, the type that most the American public would eat up, would want to protect because she could be their daughter, granddaughter, niece or best friend. Her background was so clean Sebastian's team hadn’t even been able to find so much as a detention on her record.

Now, Chloe on the other hand was in for a lot harsher treatment with her punk aesthetic and attitude, not to mention she had a much more interesting past, with dropping out of school, various minor run ins with the police, known substance abuse and countless disciplinary issues when she was in school. She was not the type of person most of Middle America would admit to be being able to relate to. He needed to get his PR team working overtime to paint Chloe in the most sympathetic light as possible. If they could turn the story around to get Chloe to look like the underdog, get people to embrace her, then it would make her life much easier in the coming year.

They pulled up in her driveway, there were a few news crews on the sidewalk outside, they all rushed towards the car as soon as it slowed down. A nervous energy engulfed Chloe, there were so many people surrounding the car, shouting questions at her, the flashbulbs seemed to never stop like heat lightning on a summers night. Opening the car door seemed impossible, there were too many people pressed up against it.

“Please step back, you need to get back onto to the sidewalk, this is private property, you are now trespassing.” A booming voice called out. A man that Chloe could only describe as looking like a human bear was at the side of the car, pushing the reporters back onto the sidewalk. He was at least 6 and a half feet tall and built like a high paid linebacker.

“That’s Tiny, he’s going to sticking around to make sure none of you are bothered, that the press respects your personal space, those kinds of things.” These types of cases tended to bring out all the crazies. He’d give them all the general safety talk so they were aware but as long as Tiny and his team did their jobs, there shouldn’t be any incidents.

“Tiny?” Chloe raised her eyebrows at the colossal man.

Sebastian laughed, opening his door, now that Tiny had gotten the press back on the sidewalk where they belonged.  “Yeah, he gets that a lot.”

“Yeah, I bet.” Chloe muttered staring at the man in awe.

* * *

 

Warren refreshed his Facebook page again, maybe he’d missed a reply from Max on the picture he’d posted on her timeline earlier. He tried not to feel discouraged when he saw there wasn’t even a like from her on the image.

_Maybe she’s busy with homework or sleeping though more than likely she’s busy with Chloe._

When the school year started, Warren imagined it would be another boring year at Blackwell. The most interesting person there had disappeared before the end of last year. Not that she even knew Warren was alive but it hadn’t stopped him from having the biggest crush ever on Rachel Amber. There were many times when he had told himself he was going to go talk to her, he’d get himself all hyped up and then pussy out at the last minute because she was either hanging out with Nathan and Victoria or worse, Chloe Price. Even after Price had gotten kicked out of Blackwell, she was still always there hanging out with Rachel. It wasn’t that he disliked Chloe, actually, she terrified him, it’s was more of he was getting tired of her always cockblocking him without even having the decency to remember his name.

When he first saw Max at Senior Orientation he knew that this year was going to better than the last three years. He went right over and introduced himself. It turned out they had a class together, too. Everything had started off so much better. He and Max really got along, they had a lot in common once he got past her shyness. She was the cutest girl at Blackwell, really witty and loved to play video games almost as much as he did. It was like someone had taken his order for the perfect girl and Max Caulfield showed up. 

Of course he’d tried to subtly ask her out a few times, he didn’t want to come on too strong but Max never seemed to pick up on it. If he didn’t make a move soon he was afraid he’d end up in the friendzone. He had planned on asking her to go see Planet of the Apes at the Drive-In but then all that shit with Nathan happened so that plan was out the window. Then when he had gone to visit her in the hospital who should be there, right at Max’s side? Chloe ‘Cockblock’ Price, of course, because he was sure the Virginity Gods were loathed to let him go.

He didn’t even know that Max knew Chloe, let alone well enough for the girl to be crying at Max’s bedside. He thought it was because everyone was saying that Max saved Chloe’s life, so it was like some type of gratitude or something. Max’s mom had quickly correctly that theory. Turned out that Max and Chloe had known each other since they were in diapers. It was a strange turn of events but he was seventy-five percent sure there wasn’t anything to be worried about, Max was straight as far as he knew. That would have been a higher percentage of certainty if it hadn’t been for the way he saw Max looking at Chloe at the hospital and then the way he saw Chloe looking at Max when he’d brought Max’s homework the other day to Chloe’s house.

After another disappointed refresh of his Facebook page, Warren decide to see if there was anything interesting to read on the Nerdist website.  He went to open a new tab when a post caught his attention. ‘New Twist in Prescott Case?’ Brooke had posted a link from CNN. Warren clicked on it and a video started playing.

“Today, insider sources have confirmed that Chloe Price has been taken into the Arcadia Bay Police Station for questioning. Price is the other student who was in the bathroom at Blackwell Academy when Nathan Prescott, son of Millionaire Developer, Sean Prescott, allegedly shot a fellow classmate. Now, sources close to the case are saying that the altercation came about as self-defense as Nathan Prescott was being blackmailed by another classmate, Chloe Price. We turn to Paula Newmann who is standing outside the Arcadia Bay Police Station for more, Paula.

Thanks, Evelyn. I’m standing outside the Arcadia Bay Police Station where police have just brought Chloe Price, who you can see in this clip... Police have brought in Price, handcuffed. We’re not clear if she has already been arrested or is being brought in for questioning at this time. Sources say that an arrest is imminent against Price, we’re just unsure at this time if it has happened. There has been speculation from those close to the Prescott’s legal team that Nathan Prescott was the victim of a blackmailing plot and that he feared for his safety which was why he had a gun with him at school. Now it hasn’t been confirmed but we’re not aware if Chloe Price was supposed to have been the only person involved in that blackmailing plot or if the shooting victim, Maxine Caulfield, was also involved.” The clip of Chloe being walked into the police station, hands cuffed behind her kept replaying.

“Paula, are you hearing anything else about the case from local residents who might have known the parties involved? What are their thoughts on what’s going on?” Evelyn Huckstadt, the news anchor asked.

“Great question, Evelyn. We have talked to a few of the locals here and the consensus seems to be that Nathan Prescott is an outstanding student, he has an excellent GPA, does volunteer work, is well liked and popular with his classmates. People aren’t sure why he would have shot his classmate as it seems completely out of character for the young man but perhaps with the police bringing Chloe Price in, it will shed some more light on this situation.”

Warren closed the tab, his stomach not able to handle much more of the complete bovine fecal matter the news was spouting about Prescott. He’d been trying to avoid the news and everything online but that only last about two hours after the shooting. He had read so many different versions, theories, rumors and speculation about what had happened and why, it was ridiculous. In the last few days different types of rumors and speculation had started to show up, ones that were complete lies. They were painting Nathan in a good light while trashing Chloe and Max from supposed anonymous sources or good friends who wished to remain anonymous. He tried to stick up for Max when he read some of the more insane rumors online. There was the one that said a “close source” claimed Max and Chloe had been stalking Nathan since the beginning of the school year, planning on kidnapping him to hold him for ransom and then there was the one that claimed Max and Nathan had a secret relationship and Chloe had confronted them because she wanted either Max or Nathan (versions varied), that the gun was her’s and she shot Max, not Nathan. It didn’t surprise Warren that people believed all the disinformation out there, there were people who were convinced we didn’t go to the Moon.

People were inclined to believe the least likely scenario because it sounded a lot more interesting than a rich, white, boy lost his shit, was going to shoot someone then Max had intervened and gotten shot instead.  The only part Warren hadn’t been able to put together at the beginning was why Chloe and Nathan had been there together in the first place.  He had to go through a lot of trouble to figure that part out but once he did, it all made horrible sense. Warren wasn’t a violent guy but he had never wanted to beat the shit out of someone as much as he wanted to beat the shit out of Nathan Prescott, for what he had done, what he had put Max through, what he’d put others through. While he couldn’t beat him senseless he could do whatever it took to make sure Nathan stayed in jailed.

Who knew, maybe Max would look at him differently, like a hero and take him out of the friend zone. Maybe the surprise he had for her would change things in his favor. He went back and refreshed his Facebook page, still no reply.

* * *

 

“Oh, Thank God, Chloe!” Max said, wishing she could throw her arms around the taller girl as soon as she walked through the door. Instead she had to settle for throwing her one good arm around Chloe’s waist and pulling her tight against her. Max burrowed her face in Chloe’s shoulder, relieved to see her. The news had made it sound as if Chloe’s chances of being released were slim to none. Of course it was all based on an unnamed insider, close to the case.

Chloe wrapped her arms around Max, careful to avoid her injured shoulder but held her just as tight. Even though Chloe knew that Max was home, safe, seeing her, really seeing her safe at home, made it real for her. She released a breath she hadn’t been aware she was holding. _See, Max is fine, Max is safe, they can’t put her through that bullshit._

“Chloe, sweetie, I was so worried about you, all those awful reporters at the police station, how are you, honey?” Joyce said, her eyes filled with concern. Reluctantly, Max went to step away so Joyce could hug her daughter but Chloe pulled her even tighter against her.

“It was all a bit overwhelming. I’m alright but I really just wanna sleep, it’s been a long day. Can we talk about it tomorrow?” Chloe asked, though she was already moving towards the stairs, taking Max with her. 

“Sure, hun, you both get some sleep and we can talk about everything tomorrow.” Joyce replied, she reached over and ran her hand down Chloe’s cheek, “Sweet dreams, girls, love you both.”

“Yeah, love you, too, night. Thanks, Sebastian, for everything, I appreciate it.” Chloe called over her shoulder, dragging Max up the stairs before they got stopped again.

Max called out her good nights as well. As they went up the stairs Max heard Joyce and Sebastian talking.

“Now, Mr. Sendal, why is there a large, bear of a man hanging out on my front porch?”

The reply was cut off as Chloe closed her bedroom door. She was a lot more twitchy, fidgety in her movements, more so than usual as she lead Max over to the bed and sat her down on it before flopping down next to her.

“Are you alright? I was so worried about you then on the news they were saying that you were arrested for blackmailing Nathan and that they were investigating whether or not you were the one that brought the gun. I was so mad, Chloe.” Max was sitting on the bed, leaning up against the older girl, playing with the bracelets on Chloe’s wrist that she was staring at. When the news had come on Max wanted to throw something at the TV from all the lies that were being said. Then, it felt like all hell had broken loose as the phone was ringing and reporters suddenly at the door. Max was sure she would have had a panic attack if Joyce hadn’t shown up, going through the back yard to avoid the press at the front of the house. Her and Max had made some dinner, even though neither of them felt like eating, it was something to try and distract them while waiting for any update. Then Sebastian had called and Joyce talked to him for a bit while Max peeked outside as the crowd of reporters kept growing. Max had seen David pull up and right away he started shouting at all the reporters to get the hell off his property. At least that had been a distraction, watching David get all flustered and pissed off, yelling at someone besides Chloe for once.

“Max…” Chloe tried to interrupt Max’s rambling as cute as it was, there was something she needed to talk to her about, something that she had realized couldn’t wait any longer.

“It such complete bullshit. And then there were all these reporters knocking on the door and even the windows, I was freaking out until your mom showed up…”

“Max,” Chloe said a bit more forcefully, to gain the other girl’s attention.

Max stopped midsentence realizing that Chloe had been trying to get her attention. She looked up at the other girl questioningly, her stomach suddenly felt like there were butterflies in it.

“We need to talk.” Chloe stated, looking down at Max, really looking at her, at the freckles that made constellations across her nose and cheeks, at how the shade of blue in Max’s eyes were her favorite shade of blue, the color she had tried to capture when she had dyed her hair but it came out a pale imitation.

The butterflies felt like they had multiplied in her stomach as Max knew what she had been rambling to prolong was finally there. She had to tell Chloe about her rewind power, about the week they shared that Chloe would never experience, about the dark room. She had decided to heavily edit the Rachel Amber parts as she knew Chloe would run right to the junk yard and that was not something Max would allow her to experience ever again. With a bit more pushing in the right direction, Max was sure she could get Sebastian to figure it out for her, sparing Chloe that first person horror.

“Yeah, I know. I promised to explain things to you…” Max said, rubbing her nose, not meeting Chloe’s eyes, looking everywhere but at the girl sitting so close their legs and shoulders were pressed together.

“Wait, there’s something I have to tell you first.” Chloe cut in, she needed to get this out before she talked herself out of it again. Tension was radiating off the older girl as her knee started bouncing on the bed. She gently took Max’s chin so she could meet her eyes, she needed Max to not just hear the words but feel them, she didn’t remove her hand even when their eyes connected. “I’m hella shitty at this kind of stuff, at like, opening up and like sharing my feelings… Max…” Chloe said her name with a sigh that made it sound sacred and fragile. As if those three letters were the scariest three letters ever strung together in any language, which to Chloe they very well could be right at that moment. She was about to cross a line she had only hours before promised herself she wouldn’t, couldn’t, ever cross but all of that disappeared the moment she saw her geeky, hipster, her Max, waiting at the door looking so goddamn perfect and how could she not want to spend every minute of every day with this girl? You didn’t know how many minutes you got in this world, so why should she waste any of them by not being with the only person she had ever completely felt like herself with?

It didn’t seem possible for Max to be any more nervous than she had been a few minutes before but that was a lie as now she was convinced she might pass out at any minute with how heavy this moment felt, how heavy and full with unspoken words in the air between them it was. She knew that what Chloe was going to say was going to change everything between them, she didn’t know exactly what Chloe was going to say but things would never be the same after it was out there.

Chloe cleared her throat, her hand cradling Max’s cheek as she fell into her favorite blue, “I was so lost when you left, no, don’t look away, please. Just lemme finish… I didn’t realize how lost until I had you back in my life. I think maybe part of me probably always knew like my heart knew before my head ever did, but I can be thick sometimes. I mean, you’re my best friend and I can’t fuck that up, I couldn’t handle it if...“ Chloe stopped, taking a shaky breath as she rolled her eyes at how incredibly lame it was all coming out, as if her tongue and brain had forgotten how to work together.

Not breaking eye contact, Max placed a comforting hand on Chloe’s knee. She was afraid to move too much, she didn’t want to break the spell this moment had put them both under, afraid any sudden movements and Chloe would stop what she was trying to say, what Max hoped she was trying to say.

“Ah, what I’m trying to fumble my way into saying is, I love you, Max, like a fat kid loves chocolate cake but like if that fat kid wanted to kiss and eat….Ah, yeah, actually that works…” Turning bright red, Chloe powered on because there was no way she could stop there. She scratched the back of her neck, feeling so far out of her comfort zone it might as well have been in a different universe by this point. She looked back into Max’s eyes, watching as they filled with shock, then understanding and finally, amusement. Chloe subtly licked her lips as she looked down at Max’s. “Fuuuuuck, ok, Max, I’m going to kiss you and if you don’t want me to then you better move right now.”

Chloe was shocked at first when Max had moved but only to capture her lips with her own first, her hand trailing up Chloe’s arm, caressing the full arm tattoo, further up to get tangled in her blue hair pulling their faces even closer. _Hey, no fair, I was gonna kiss you...oh fuck, I’m kissing Max, like for real, Max is kissing me!_

The angle was awkward and Chloe’s teeth scraped Max’s bottom lip at first in surprise but they quickly settled into a rhythm. Max’s lips were, of course, soft, but that felt like too weak of a word to use, they felt like butter melting, all smooth and silky. She tasted like the strawberry lip gloss she applied at least once an hour and maple syrup. Chloe moved her hand up Max’s cheek, her fingertips brushing the brunette’s hairline as her thumb rubbed along Max’s cheekbone.

Her neck was starting to hurt from the weird angle so she gently leaned over Max, pressing her back against the bed not breaking the kiss, their noses bumped as Chloe maneuvered so that the top half of her body was leaning over Max but not on her injured shoulder. It was a much better position as Chloe deepened the kiss, the tip of her tongue sliding over Max’s bottom lip, then their tongues slid against each other’s, velvety and wet, dancing together. A moan escaped the back of Max’s throat as her hand gripped Chloe’s hip, fingers sliding under her black tank top. Chloe’s skin felt on fire where Max’s fingers touched her. Her senses were filled with the taste of Max, the way she smelled like a fresh day, all crisp and clean with a hint of citrus. She lightly bit down on Max’s bottom lip, pulling back to take in a huge gulp of much needed air. She was still light headed but that was probably due more to the kiss than the lack of oxygen. She rested her forehead against Max’s looking down into the only eyes she wanted to stare into. 

Max felt like she was floating, not sure if what had happened really had happen or if she was having a very lucid dream. She rewound a couple times, just to make sure. The way Chloe was looking at her right than, with so much tenderness and love, it felt overwhelming but in a good way, in the best way. They weren’t on the edge of a cliff facing death, this wasn’t some impulse last minute before she died kind of confession. This was Chloe telling her she loved her before she even knew about her power, before she even knew what Max was capable of. That Chloe _loved_ loved her and wanted to kiss her and touch her and do other things that just friends didn’t do, even though Max knew it was possible, had seen it was possible in the other timeline, she still wasn’t fully prepared for how it felt without looming death involved. The only thing that was truly keeping her from fully enjoying this moment was that she was worried how Chloe was going to react when Max told her what she’d been keeping from her. There was no way she couldn’t tell her, especially now, but Max was terrified that Chloe might take back everything she’d just said, in the most awkward, amazing way anyone had ever professed their love. Max refused to lose that.

“Hey, is this...is this alright?” Chloe asked, doubt starting to cloud her eyes as Max had yet to say anything.

Realizing she was about to ruin the moment and quite possibly Chloe’s self-confidence, Max leaned up and kissed the tip of Chloe’s nose as she tucked a piece of Chloe’s hair back behind her ear. “Much alright.”

Max then captured Chloe’s lips again, if this might end after she told Chloe about her power and how she’d been hiding it for weeks from her, then she was going to take all the smoochies she could in case it all came crashing down around her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone, I'm grateful for all the reviews, kudos and messages. You're all so great. I was going to hold onto this one for a few more days but I couldn't help myself, I had to put it out there because it's one of my favorite chapters so far, let me know what your thoughts are.


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